Azure Within The Three Kingdoms
by Zero-Sennin
Summary: A trip through a Cauldron with Nu-13 leaves Ragna alone in a strange land, with a new "destiny" as the Messenger of Heaven. Amidst the forces of Sousou, Sonken, and Enshou, Ragna must strive to adjust to this new world and to the presence of people who trust him to guide them to peace and victory. AU, rated for Ragna's language and suggestive content.
1. Proverb 1

**Zhuo district, Youzhou province, near Mount Wutai**

When Ragna the Bloodedge finally came back to cognizance, his body throbbed in pain.

The soft sound of wind blowing in his ears did nothing to lessen the headache that drummed at his brain, nor did the cool grass on his bare back. His chest and body burned with the pain of fresh injuries, but he was functioning well enough otherwise.

The last thing he could remember was facing down the strange girl called Nu at the bottom of the NOL base in Kagutsuchi, dressed in her strange blue-and white armor. He had just saved an NOL officer by the name of Noel Vermillion from being eviscerated by Nu's flying swords, and had gotten into one final battle with Nu. However, right on the cusp of victory, Nu had stabbed him and pulled him down into the Cauldron.

After that, everything went white.

Before he could think over his position in particular, his thoughts were completely interrupted by a rough male voice. "Shorty, Fatso. Let's check him for goods, then grab that sword next to him and scram."

Two voices replied, one sly and sneaky, the other slow and ponderous. "Yes, Boss."

The moment he heard those words, Ragna opened his eyes in shock, and found himself staring into a beautiful sky. Cursing under his breath, he sat up as quickly as his body would allow, glaring at the three men standing a few feet away from him.

They were dressed in odd clothes, with brown leather armor at their waists, blue sleeveless shirts, brown pants, and yellow scarves around their heads and necks. One was short and skinny looking with a weaselly face, the second was a little shorter than Ragna and had a wispy black mustache, and the third was huge, at least a good foot taller than Ragna and twice as wide. Behind them, he could see quite a few hills, and there was a mountain in the distance, though none like any he'd ever seen before. It had a thin, decidedly slim profile in comparison to the sturdy mountains that he saw most Hierarchical Cities built into, and seemed to be surrounded by foothills instead of the stiff upward climb that most mountains would have. In fact, he couldn't even see any traces of a City on that mountain in the first place—no ports, no airships, nothing. It was just there, like it was out of an old picture book or something.

There was something terribly weird about it, but he had no time to sit and figure it out.

"Any of you assholes come one step closer and I'll punch your head off your shoulders," Ragna said flatly. He experimentally clenched his black-gloved right fist. The rest of that arm was covered by black bandages that were clasped by a golden buckle just below his shoulder. It wasn't actually his real arm, but a mass of concentrated seithr called the Azure Grimoire that was doubling as his arm. He frowned and shook his head after a few repetitions of clenching and opening his hand in the same manner. The arm as a whole still moved and felt right, but at the same time, something about it felt off, as if it only had enough power to function as a prosthetic arm. "If you tell me where the nearest Hierarchical City is, and do it quick, I won't kick the shit out of you for trying to rob me."

The thief that had spoken earlier, "Boss", spoke up again. "Hier what now? What are you talking about?" He pointed his sword directly at Ragna's face and came closer, with the other two flanking him. "Quit babbling and give over anything valuable you've got, or you're gonna die!"

Ragna grunted, then looked to his right. He saw something solid and black in the grass, and he quickly wrapped his hand around it, gripping it tightly. He got to his feet and shook his head, then dislodged a few blades of grass from his wild, spiked-up white hair with his gloved left hand. The object he'd grabbed on to was the handle of a black, rectangular piece of metal with a large, shining white blade attached on one side and a thin red revolver cylinder running the entire length of the black rectangle. This was Ragna's personal sword, Blood-Scythe, and as soon as he was fully on his feet, he shifted it into his preferred reverse grip.

The bandits gave Ragna a wary glance at this point; he wore no shirt, only a bell-shaped pair of pants, with a pair of belts crossing over his waist in an X, and metal-toed red boots. This exposed Ragna's slim, muscular upper-body build, as well as a number of scars and wounds, the most prominent of which was a brownish star-burst scar on his sternum that looked as if it were still healing. His eyes—the left green, the white red—glared angrily at them.

"This sword's all I've got, fellas," Ragna said. "If you want it, I'll give it to you—but you'll be bleeding like a bitch afterward!"

"Shorty" looked at Blood-Scythe and immediately went pale. "H-hey, Boss," he said, "I think we picked a bad mark this time. I don't like the look of this guy."

Boss scoffed and moved closer to Ragna, keeping his blade at the ready to attack. "What are you afraid of? It's just some shirtless guy with mismatched eyes and a giant butter knife. There are three of us and one of him!"

"Yeah, and one of me could kill fifty of you shits with his pinky finger and have enough energy to do the same to a hundred of you after that," Ragna said. He stepped toward Boss, cracking the knuckles of his left hand by clenching it into a rigid claw. "Last chance, boys. I'd listen to the shrimp, though, he's the one with the most sense."

Boss replied to that by snarling and glaring at Fatso. "Fatso! Pound him! I'll follow behind you!"

"You got it, Boss," Fatso replied. He took three lumbering steps toward Ragna, drawing a blade roughly the size of Blood-Scythe from a sheath on his back, and swung down with a grunt. Ragna immediately hefted Blood-Scythe upward, and blocked Fatso's strike. Then, he punched Fatso in the gut, jumped upward, and slammed Blood-Scythe's hilt into Fatso's nose; instantly, the large bandit fell onto his back, completely unconscious. Ragna landed, then cracked his neck and looked at the other two.

"Still want it?" Ragna asked, waggling around Blood-Scythe with a bored frown on his face. "You look like you don't anymore."

"Boss, we can't take him," Shorty shouted. "We gotta leave right now or we're gonna bite it! Seriously!"

Boss's response was to kick Fatso a few times. When the massive bandit woke up and stumbled to his feet, Boss immediately turned away from Ragna and ran off without saying another word. However, in their haste, they didn't notice the sound of someone else approaching them from their right side until a female voice rang out across the plains like a clear bell.

"Hold!"

The bandits, and Ragna as well, turned to see who had spoken to them.

It was Ragna, though, that saw her first.

A young woman, probably no older than 20 or 21, was walking in their direction. She had long, black hair and sharp amber eyes. Some of her hair was off into a ponytail on the left side of her head, with a golden bangle and a pink ribbon keeping the ponytail in place, while her bangs spilled over the right side of her face. She wore a sleeveless outfit with a green collar similar to that of a business suit, and a purple-white checkered tie. A black skirt with dark leggings—and a longer, green-gold skirt over that, as well as white sleeves detached from her suit-completed her look. In one hand, she carried a pole-arm—a halberd, topped with the head of a dragon. A curved blade emerged from the dragon's mouth, and just below the head of the dragon, a pink cloth was wrapped around the shaft of the weapon and fluttered in the wind. Ragna could tell from the way she was holding it that she was well-versed in its use, and wasn't particularly shy about using it however she saw fit.

"You there," she said, continuing to step towards Ragna and the bandits with an infuriated expression. "How dare you assault the Messenger of Heaven so casually—and when he is wounded, on top of that! Truly, you are shameless indeed!"

Ragna and the bandits blinked at exactly the same time. "Messenger of Heaven?" they all asked at once.

Ignoring the puzzlement on their faces, the young woman kept walking until she stood next to Ragna. Once she was there, she shifted her halberd into her left hand, then grabbed the rear end with her right, and shifted into a stance that seemed maximized to allow explosive movement. "I will not abide this insult to the Youzhou province, nor to this man," she said, narrowing her eyes. "Prepare yourselves!"

Boss looked the girl over very carefully, then snorted. "As if a walking pair of breasts is going to scare me at all."

Shorty and Fatso immediately looked at Boss, then back at the girl. Her face was flushed red, but her brows were drawn together and her head was lowered just enough for her eyes to be veiled in shadow. "A walking pair of breasts, you say," she said slowly. Ragna took a large step to the left, not wanting to be anywhere near her when she started to swing her weapon around. Even with what little social graces he had, he knew that cracking jokes about a woman's bust was just asking for trouble, even if they were true. "Then allow me to walk over there and cut your tongue out of your head!"

The moment that threat came out of her mouth, she jumped forward, bringing her halberd down in a clean vertical strike. Shrieking in fright, the bandits continued running off, except twice as fast as before; Boss in particular barely avoided having his head split open by her attack. Ragna whistled as the blade of her weapon gouged out a significant chunk of earth when it landed. She kept glaring at the backs of the fleeing bandits, but eventually let out a heavy sigh and stood up, switching back to the casual one-handed grip she'd used as she was walking over. Then, she turned to Ragna with a warm, sunny smile, though he could tell that she was looking at him with a fair amount of concern. "Your injuries aside, are you well?"

Ragna nodded, and moved Blood-Scythe behind him. The grooved metal plate on the back of one of his belts immediately locked the sword into place, and he let the handle go. "Yeah, I'm fine. Nothing a little rest won't fix." He looked at Kan'u with a raised eyebrow. "So what's all this you were saying about a Messenger of Heaven? And who the hell are you exactly?"

The flush on her cheeks overtook her whole face. "A-Ah, yes, I'm sorry, how rude of me." She bowed at the waist, then straightened up. "My family name is Kan, and my first name is U—Kan'u. My common name is Unchou. I have traveled here by the word of the oracle Kanro to greet the one that would descend from Heaven." She bowed again, but this time, more briefly. "I apologize for being so late to assist you. Might I ask your name, my lord?"

"The name's Ragna. No need for that 'my lord' crap," Ragna said. "And really, it's fine. I could've taken them if I had to, but the help's appreciated anyway." Though he was outwardly calm, inwardly he was seriously confused. He had never heard of a Youzhou province. On top of that, the bandits didn't seem to know what a Hierarchical City was, and he'd never seen plains like these while passing through the more treacherous lowland areas between the mountains where the Hierarchical Cities were built. The only way to find out was to ask. "Right, so...where the hell are we? Where's the nearest Hierarchical City?"

"This is the Zhou district of the Youzhou province," Kan'u replied. "In the distance over there is Mount Wutai." She frowned. "I don't know what you mean when you speak of a Hierarchical City, but not far from here is a village that serves as the seat of the district."

She directed her gaze squarely at Ragna's sternum, and he looked down at the scar there when he realized that she was no longer looking him directly in the eyes. The phantom memory of being stabbed by Nu-13 briefly shot through his mind, but he ignored it as quietly as he could. The girl's face had been way too familiar for him (_way too similar to Saya's face,_ his brain said) to be comfortable remembering it.

His thoughts then shifted to what Kan'u had just said, and his stomach churned. _She's never heard of a Hierarchical City either? What the hell is going on here? _

"At any rate, we should leave for the village as soon as possible, my lord," Kan'u said, drawing him out of his inadvertent reverie. "After your wounds are treated, we can discuss the matter of how to proceed."

She began to walk off, and after a moment of stunned silence, Ragna quickly moved to keep pace with her. "I already told you just to call me Ragna," he said, overtaking her and standing in front of her. "And what do you mean about 'how to proceed'? I still don't get what the hell a Messenger of Heaven is supposed to be, and I'm pretty sure that even if I did know, I'm sure as shit not it."

Kan'u stopped walking, and looked up at Ragna's face with a perplexed frown. He carried himself with the bearing of a confident man, but his language didn't match his station at all. "Kanro did say that you would not know of your purpose when you came. My apologies for not explaining it." Her expression lightened as she closed her eyes. "'A man with a red right eye and hair whiter than the driven snow shall descend from the heavens to the plains of Mount Wutai, bearing a gleaming blade. His clothes are beyond the make of mortals, and he shall be the one—the Messenger of Heaven that the people shall rally around as this war-torn era begins to move toward its end.'" She looked at Ragna again and smiled at him. "That was the oracle given by Kanro. When I heard it, I decided that I would find the Messenger and pledge myself to his service—that is to say, your service, my lord."

Ragna raised an eyebrow. Her memory had to have been pretty impressive to recite something that long off the top of her head, and she was looking at him with such conviction that she was either crazy enough to believe her own lies or completely serious about what she'd said. He would have said the latter, but frankly speaking, nothing made sense right now, and he didn't want to alienate someone that actually had some idea of what the hell was going on.

Ultimately, though, whatever he was planning on saying next was cut off by a cheerful girlish voice coming from in front of them.

"Aisha!"

Kan'u jumped in surprised and turned her attention forward. A young girl with short red hair, dressed in tight navy shorts and a high-collared yellow half-jacket, was dashing toward them with a large grin on her face. Her feet were covered in navy socks that exposed the front of her feet and her heels. A red scarf with two tails was wrapped around her shoulders, and a golden ring around the collar of the sleeveless navy shirt gleamed in the sunlight.

She wore red fingerless gloves, and she carried a halberd similar to Kan'u's. However, it was much less ornate, and the head of the weapon did not have a smooth, curved blade, but a zigzagging one; a cloth was tied to the shaft just below the blade, like Kan'u's, but the cloth was navy instead of pink. Ragna blinked in disbelief, as the weapon was literally twice the girl's height, yet she carried it easily.

The girl came to a stop right in front of Kan'u, and grinned, violet eyes sparkling. Strangely enough, Ragna could have sworn that the circular tiger-head hairpin in the girl's hair was smiling as well.

"Rinrin, there you are," Kan'u said. In contrast to the girl's joyfully carefree expression, Kan'u was frowning sternly. "What took you so long? The Messenger was being attacked by bandits when I found him. Were they not so weak, they might have overcome him because of his injuries."

"I'm sorry, sis," the girl replied, scratching the back of her head. "But that cute doggy distracted me, and then by the time I looked up you were already gone." She then looked in Ragna's direction, and her sheepish smile grew back into a wide one as she examined him. "Wow, it's just like old man Kanro said, Aisha! The hair, the sword, the eyes...he really is the Messenger, isn't he? And he looks really tough, too, like he can fight!"

Kan'u nodded, and her severe expression gave way to a smile. "Undoubtedly." She then turned to Ragna, and said, "You should properly introduce yourself, Rinrin."

The girl saluted and stepped back, then bowed quickly, looking back up into Ragna's face as soon as she was done. The twin brown belts at her waist shifted slightly as she did so. "Great to meetcha, big bro! My last name's Chou, and my given name is Hi—Chouhi. My common name is Yokutoku." Her smile grew wider. "But since you're going to be our Lord, you can call me by my real name, Rinrin."

"And you may call me by mine, as well," Kan'u added. "From now on, please address me as Aisha."

Ragna grunted for a second as he tried to figure out what he could possibly say to make these two understand that he wasn't who they thought he was. _Bah, it's no good,_ he thought, shaking his head. _They're both totally convinced that I'm this so-called Messenger, and if I keep trying to deny it they're only gonna get more annoying. And even if I try to leave them behind, they'd probably chase me down. And I don't even know where the hell this is. _He ran a hand through his hair, then shrugged. _Screw it. Might as well go along with it for now. Maybe this town will have a map for me to check out and I'll be able to figure out where I am after all._

"All right then," he said to both of them. "Let's go to this village and talk some more, I guess. I kind of get what you're saying, but I don't know if that oracle of yours really knew what they were talking about if they thought I'd be the one to do this job."

"You still doubt that you are the Messenger," Kan'u said sadly. She frowned, but this time it was more an expression of soft disappointment than anger or sternness. "Why are you so uncertain of this? You match the oracle's description perfectly, and your body states that you are a seasoned warrior. I truly believe that someone like you is best suited to be the Messenger. You can most definitely change this land for the better."

Ragna sighed. "Rinrin was right when she said that I knew how to fight, but that's pretty much all I know how to do. I'm not made to be a leader and shit. I just do what I gotta do, and if people get in the way, they get out of it or get stepped on. I ain't cut out to save people."

Kan'u's frown deepened, and she took a breath before she continued speaking, her head lowered. "Please don't trod on my faith any more."

"Huh?" Ragna asked. "The hell are you talking about?"

"If you do not believe that you are the one that can complete this task, then neither I nor Rinrin will have the strength to do what must be done for the people of this land," Kan'u said, raising her head. Her eyes were clearly sad, but her face was set in a determined glare. "The conflicts have been going on for years, as the armies of Go and Gi have been massing their forces and expanding their territories. And here in this province, the Yellow Turbans are taking supplies from whoever or wherever they can so that they can challenge the emperor and the Imperial Court. If the people have no one to believe in, then this spiral will continue on, and even if Rinrin and I fight to save who we can, we aren't enough."

Ragna immediately figured out what she was trying to say. "So the Messenger is supposed to be the person for people to believe in."

Kan'u nodded, even as her lips crunched together into a trembling white line. "I know it's a tremendous responsibility. But I believe in what Kanro said about the Messenger of Heaven, because more than anything, I want to see this land find peace so that no more children have to live through the pain that I lived through. Even if the world falls back into the old pattern after I die, I want to say that I did my part to try and stop it."

The silence between the two of them stood for several moments before Ragna finally let his shoulders slump. "Fine, then. You two seriously think I can do this shit, don't ya? Then I guess I might as well give it a shot."

Kan'u's eyes widened slightly. "Then you'll do it?"

Ragna folded his arms and winced when he accidentally rubbed the wounds on his chest and arms. "Said I was gonna, didn't I? Don't question me, damn it. Just get me patched up and I'll take the field with you guys." He patted the hilt of Blood-Scythe with a small grin that didn't quite reach his eyes. "I've got this damn thing and these scars of mine for a reason, you know?"

Kan'u let out a small laugh, then nodded her head. "Very well, my lord. Rinrin, let's move."

"Happy to, sis!" Chouhi replied.

As they walked, Ragna looked up into the sky again and let out a quiet sigh through his nose. He didn't know what was going on, nor did he know how the hell he'd gotten wherever he was. All he knew for sure was that they were relying on him to do something, and that they were more than willing to help him manage in this place, wherever it was. Maybe he would figure it out in time, but for now, he saw no harm in trying to help them while trying to get acclimated to where he was now.

_And it's nice to have people believing in me just a little bit, _his traitorous brain added, _instead of hunting me down like a dog._

* * *

The walk back to the village itself was uneventful, but things quickly escalated once Kan'u, Chouhi, and Ragna arrived there.

The moment they approached the gates, a desolate scene greeted them. Doors were kicked down and buildings were stained with scorch marks. Corpses were strewn about in the city, lying in pools of their own blood. The only place that seemed relatively untouched was a large, tiered building that was enclosed by the wall surrounding the town; the massive black gates that protected it were untouched. With a snarled, incomprehensible curse, Ragna drew Blood-Scythe and held it ready to strike as he dashed forward. Both Kan'u and Chouhi, however, remained frozen in place, though Chouhi soon snapped out of it and followed after Ragna.

"...The Turbans," Kan'u whispered to herself, taking a few shallow steps further into the village. "They must have done this. While I was finding him, perhaps...?" She pressed a hand to her face, grinding her teeth together. "Damn! This is...this is my fault."

"Bullshit," Ragna said as he walked back toward her, stowing Blood-Scythe again. He could tell that the stony look on her face was mostly put-upon, a front to stop herself from letting her real emotions show. "Besides that, if you had been here you might've gotten overrun by them or some shit. Even losers can be dangerous in numbers." He watched Chouhi go farther up the street, then sighed, wincing when the action caused his chest to burn. "The squirt thinks that anyone left is hiding out somewhere around here. Come on. We've gotta help her find 'em and figure out how we're gonna counterattack those Turban assholes."

"The people here aren't warriors, my lord." Kan'u said, slowly shaking off her malaise to look Ragna in the eye. "And after a defeat like this they may not want to even try to fight back. We'll have to convince them into it."

Ragna snorted. "Good thing I'm here then. Isn't that exactly what this Messenger of yours is supposed to do? Rally the people to kick some ass, end the war-torn era or whatever? Don't tell me you don't believe the shit you told me just a while back. If you don't believe it, you can't expect anyone else to."

Kan'u's gaze firmed as she rapped the butt of her halberd on the ground. "I very much do believe in what I told you earlier. However, I would prefer that you not dismiss my ideals so flippantly, my lord. I merely had a moment...of doubt. This village was thriving earlier today, and now...it's been reduced to this." She gestured around loosely with her free hand, and her lip trembled.

If Ragna felt more comfortable, he might have put a reassuring hand on her shoulder, but touching people had never been something he'd been big on even before he'd started toughening up. "And getting choked up isn't going to bring it back. The best you can do for the people that died is kick some Yellow Turban ass. Now, let's get going already."

Kan'u took another look around the destroyed village, then nodded and followed behind Ragna as he went after Chouhi.

* * *

As it turned out, Chouhi's intuition was correct. The building that she entered as Ragna and Kan'u followed behind her was the tavern, and a number of villagers were holed up there—sons, daughters, old and young, anyone that had managed to escape the attack. Chouhi was talking adamantly with a middle-aged man, and Ragna and Kan'u caught the tail end of the conversation as they came up behind Chouhi.

"...there were about four thousand of them," the man said to Chouhi, his shoulders slumping. "They just swooped in and hit us. Those bastards..."

Chouhi's expression was surprisingly thoughtful, though it soon enough broke into the kind of smile that she always wore. "Well, you don't have to worry, Chief. Me, Aisha, and big bro Ragna will take care of all those Yellow Turban jerks!"

The man blinked, then looked at Ragna and Kan'u standing right behind Chouhi. "I'm guessing that you're the two that this girl was talking about," he said to them. "My name is Gan. I'm the village chief. Who are you people?"

Kan'u nodded. "I am Kan'u, and this man is Ragna, my current lord." She gave Chouhi a gentle rap on the back of the head. "This is Chouhi. As she said, we are more than happy to assist you all, but we cannot do it alone. We know that you have lost many people dear to you today, but if you are willing to fight to the bitter end, then you will triumph."

Another villager sitting in a chair, a young woman holding a child in her lap, looked up at Kan'u, a weary expression crossing her face. Her eyes were red and puffy. "We were completely defeated, though. What can the three of you do against the Turbans?"

"It's not just the three of us," Kan'u said. A faint smile graced her lips. "We have the heavens on our side, as well. In Luoyang, there has been a rumor of a white-haired Messenger from Heaven, graced with a red right eye and a large blade. He is said to be the one that can end the turmoil in these lands. I, Unchou Kan'u, swore my loyalty to this man, and so too did Chouhi. We knew that he could change this world as prophesied if we were to lend him our power."

As the villagers all looked up at her in wonder, her description made them all look over to Ragna. He returned their curious gazes with an impassive, calm frown, then took a quick glance in Kan'u's direction. She nodded once, though he saw a brief flash of guilt written all over her face, and Ragna replied by doing the same to the audience at large. A quiet buzz began to spread amongst the crowd as they looked back and forth between Ragna and each other, and Kan'u continued where she left off. "So long as you all have the desire to fight, you can claim our aid, and we will in turn fight until the Turbans are wiped out to a man. Heaven shall stand with us. You can count on that."

The murmurs grew louder, but stopped when Gan stepped up and looked Ragna straight in the eye. "Are you truly the Messenger of Heaven? Can you truly save us from this endless period of war?"

Ragna could feel Kan'u's eyes on his back, and he sighed in his mind. "I can at the very least help you pay back those Turbans for screwing with your town. But it's like she said. You gotta be thirsty to win, no matter what. Otherwise you're not gonna avenge anyone and anything I do for you ain't gonna mean shit. The rest of it is up to you all after that."

Kan'u looked slightly mortified by Ragna's choice of words, while Chouhi just watched Ragna with a serious frown that seemed extremely misplaced on her face. Gan closed his eyes and rubbed at the stubble on his sun-marked chin, then nodded. "You seem young for a Messenger of Heaven, and you talk more like one of us, but you're an honest lad. I think it would be my great honor to fight if you are willing to loan us your power."

Ragna felt a dull burn sweep over his body, and he sighed to avoid flinching in pain. "Long as you're serious, yeah, I got no problem with it. Though getting some bandages for all my cuts—and a new shirt, if you can spare one—wouldn't be a bad deal either."

"Our doctor made it through all right," Gan said. "I'll have him patch you up. The Turbans said they'd be back sometime tomorrow, so you can at least rest before you attack them." The deep lines on Gan's face grew shallower as he cracked a wry smile for Ragna. "We'll pay back what we took from them tenfold."

Ragna nodded, then looked at the rest of the villagers gathered in the tavern. He could see Kan'u smiling broadly at him, encouraging him to go on, so he cleared his throat. "I don't think we're in a position to do too much waiting, though. We got no clue when they'll hit tomorrow, or even if they'll actually hit tomorrow. We stand a better chance of kicking their asses if we jump 'em when they don't expect us to." He scratched his hair, closing his eyes for a moment, then looked to Kan'u, who was slightly shocked by the boldness of his statement. "I ain't really good with this battlefield tactics stuff, though. You think we might be able to take down 4,000 guys with what we've got on hand if we march in an hour or two?"

"If we're careful about how we engage them, we should be fine," Kan'u replied. "It will be a daunting proposition regardless. We should definitely confirm their numbers first. After that, we can counterattack effectively." She looked over at Chouhi. "Rinrin. You're the fastest one we've got here. Do you mind taking a few volunteers to go scouting?"

"Of course not, sis!" Chouhi replied, grinning wide. "Just leave it to me."

"Works for me," Ragna said. "Once we find 'em, we crush 'em. Simple as shooting fish in a barrel." He rolled his right shoulder, and looked down at Gan again. "So, about that doctor and that shirt...?"

"While Lady Chouhi's out scouting, we can get you fixed up," Gan said. "Don't worry about it."

As he said that, another middle-aged man approached from another corner of the tavern, with a roll of bandages in one hand and a pot of something foul-smelling in the other hand. His brown hair was arranged in a bun, and he wore small glasses and plain white robes.

"The doctor, I presume," Ragna said.

The man bowed. "Chen, at your service, my lord."

Ragna would have told Chen to stop calling him "My Lord", but he figured that it would be a lost cause with him as much as it was with Kan'u, and shook his head. "We don't have much time. You got anything that'll keep me together for the next couple of hours?"

Chen nodded. "I'll have to rub you down with an ointment before I wrap your wounds. It'll feel a bit unpleasant at first, but between that and the bindings, the wounds will seal and your body will start to feel better than it ever has before."

Ragna arched a white eyebrow and gave the doctor a suspicious look. "How unpleasant is 'unpleasant'?"

Rather than reply directly, the doctor put the pot onto a nearby table and dipped a hand into it. When he pulled it out, a daub of yellow oil was on his fingertips. He rubbed his hands together, coating it in the ointment, then moved around to Ragna's back and rubbed it directly on the spot where Nu's last stab had come out of Ragna's body. Ragna winced more from the contact with his injury than anything else, but as soon as the doctor stopped spreading the ointment around, Ragna's body became a board before he bared his teeth and let out a roar that shook the tavern like it was in the middle of an earthquake.

"SON OF A BITCH, IT **BURNS!**"

* * *

After another hour or so, the painful process was finished, and Ragna had been completely bandaged up and released by Chen. Once the bandages were set, Gan gave Ragna a black Chinese-styled shirt with long sleeves and red buttons, and shortly afterward, Ragna had left the tavern with Kan'u in tow. Together, they took a walk down the main street of the ruined village, waiting for Chouhi to return with news from the scouting, but the trip was surprisingly unpleasant. Kan'u's grip on her halberd was iron-clad, and she occasionally rubbed at her ear, shooting Ragna dirty looks from the side of her eyes.

"It hurt, OK?" Ragna said after three minutes of the prolonged silence. "Like the asshole shoved me headfirst into a campfire. What did you expect me to do, smile and laugh it off?"

"You didn't need to resort to such harsh language," Kan'u said, grinding out the words from between clenched teeth. "You are the Messenger of Heaven, my lord. You must present a more dignified image to the people if you expect them to follow you!"

Ragna shrugged. "Old Gan said he liked the way I talk. Makes me more approachable, he said. And no one else seemed to mind it. Not even the kid."

Kan'u's expression could not be called anything except a pout, particularly as her cheeks were flushed and she was staring straight ahead. "If you mean Rinrin, then I should tell you that she is not easy to offend with words alone. At any rate, it is still extremely undignified. I would prefer it if the lord I chose to serve would conduct himself as such..."

The raw annoyance in her voice grated on Ragna a bit, but he knew what point she was trying to make. Still, the rebel in him didn't back down easily, and while he was kind of accepting the "Messenger of Heaven" deal because of his current circumstances, he didn't intend on letting it dictate how he handled himself and his business. "Well, newsflash. This is kind of the way I am. I didn't have time to be polite and shit back when I was blowing up Cauldrons. Wouldn't have done jack shit for me."

Kan'u blinked, and said, "What are Cauldrons?"

Her tongue tripped over the strange word, and Ragna mentally punched himself in the back of the head for even bringing them up. He hadn't even had time to figure out how the hell he was going to get back to where he belonged, anyway, much less how he'd wound up where he did.

"Nothing important," he said, kicking a rock down the sandy street. "Just a job I had to do."

The harshness of his reply made Kan'u shrink in on herself, but she quickly hid her unease from Ragna, and nodded. However, the slight stutter in her voice was too obvious, and he looked over at her just in time to see her slightly distraught expression. "I-I see."

Her visible uncertainty made Ragna wince internally, and he sighed, pressing his right palm to his face. "...Sorry. Didn't mean to snap at you. It's just...that's some really personal sh—business to get into. And if I sat and explained the whole thing to you, you'd think I was crazy."

Kan'u's stomach loosened slightly at Ragna's self-censure, and she got the courage to actually look at him again. "Personal business? Then, those Cauldrons have something to do with Heaven?"

_I'd hate to be from any kind of Heaven where there are Cauldrons around, _Ragna thought. _Still, better change the subject. Don't wanna get into this shit right now. _"...Sort of. Maybe sometime later I'll try to explain, but not right now, OK? Got too many other things to worry about."

Inwardly, Kan'u patted herself on the back for getting Ragna to agree to share a story about Heaven. Outwardly, though, she let her happiness show in a more reserved manner, simply replying with a confident smile. "As you wish."

Ragna felt something in him stir a bit at the way Kan'u's lips curved, but after a moment, he shook it off and went back to keeping his eyes forward as he walked. After a second, he said, "Aisha. Earlier in the tavern, you looked like you felt bad about something. It was right after you introduced me as the Messenger of Heaven. What was that about?"

Kan'u blinked, looked at Ragna, then squirmed a little bit, looking away from him as quickly as she had looked at him. Her previously happy expression gave way to a self-loathing frown. "Rinrin and I are the only ones that know of Kanro's oracle," she said, her voice lowering to a slight whisper. Her brows drew together, and her bottom lip pressed tightly against the top. "There is no talk of it in Luoyang at all. I lied to them for the sake of rallying them against the Turbans."

Ragna shrugged. He didn't particularly like the idea of pretending that rumors of his arrival were hot shit when they weren't, but Kan'u had been fishing for ways to raise morale. A little white lie or two wouldn't be too bad if it got their job done and kept the villagers motivated enough to fight. "What's Luoyang again?"

"The capital of the empire," Kan'u replied, chiding herself for forgetting that Ragna didn't know the lay of the land. "If people truly knew of your existence there, there might have been a mass swarming to this province to find you." She sighed. "Right now, though, people are more concerned that the Imperial Court's policies are the cause of the Yellow Turban Rebellion in the first place, so that may not have even happened. The fact of the matter is that I still manipulated the villagers' trust, even if it was for a good end."

"What's done is done," Ragna said bluntly, scratching his nose with his right hand before he put said hand into his pants pocket. "If you regret it, try to avoid doing it again. Simple as that. Though, at least you're sharp enough to understand that ends don't always justify the means."

"Of course they don't!" Kan'u retorted, a bit more sharply than she intended. Ragna stopped walking outright as her voice bounced off a few of the buildings, and after a moment, she flushed bright red and looked away, gripping her halberd even tighter. "Pardon me, my lord," she whispered. "I'm sorry for losing my temper. But it's the acceptance of that attitude that caused this issue with the Yellow Turbans in the first place. Because the Imperial Court didn't think of anything but how to make their policies benefit them and not the people, they kept on doing such intolerable things that the Turbans couldn't help but rebel." Her knuckles cracked as her hand clenched around the shaft of her halberd. "And then the Turbans forgot that purpose and began to do whatever they wanted, claiming that they were fighting against the tyranny of the court. It's disgraceful! There are just certain depths one cannot fall toward if they wish to fulfill a dream, and both the Court and the Turbans refused to remember that."

Despite himself, Ragna let out a dry, slow chuckle. Kan'u had just described the NOL to a tee, and the way she spoke so passionately about it made him wonder if perhaps she had been as personally affected by the Yellow Turban Rebellion and the Imperial Court as he had been affected by what had happened to him when he was a child. "The assholes that made those Cauldrons I mentioned are the same way. I think that maybe 'Heaven' and this place aren't quite so different as I thought."

Kan'u blinked, and almost asked what he meant, but the loud shouts of Rinrin's voice from behind them stopped that conversation short.

"Sis! Big bro! We found them!"

* * *

After another hour of prep time, the group of willing fighters began to march out to the Yellow Turban encampment, under a sky barely starting to turn orange as the sun slowly started to set. Chouhi led the way, while Ragna and Kan'u followed, walking side by side as they had in the village earlier. Chouhi's scouting trip had revealed one other vital bit of information that the villagers hadn't been able to convey at first; the Turbans' weapons were extremely low-quality, enough so that even a common spear could break them. The villagers only had so many things to make into weapons and even less actual weapons, but at the very least the Turbans did not have the advantage of superior weaponry.

"So there really were four thousand of them," Kan'u said to herself, reviewing the other information that Chouhi had given them in her head. "So long as the men stick to our strategy, then we should be fine, but any mistakes..."

Ragna shook his head, and looked over his shoulder at the villagers following them. Most were young and able-bodied enough to use a sword, but the older volunteers carried bows and arrows to fight from afar, and a lot of them were carrying axes and hastily made polearms. Some even had pitchforks or large sticks crafted into clubs. "We're gonna lose people regardless of what they do with your orders. Best we can do is make sure that as few of them die as possible while we kill the shit out of the Turbans."

Kan'u's face immediately took on a strained look the moment he said that. "My lord...must you be so blunt about it?"

"No point in pussyfooting around it," Ragna said. He reached behind him and drew Blood-Scythe with his right hand, flexing his arm a few times, then sheathed it again. As before, the Grimoire seemed to be moving fine, but now that he wasn't so distracted by his wounds or his surroundings, he could tell that _something _was wrong with it, and he didn't know what. Even its accelerated healing factor didn't seem to be doing much for him now. He'd have to try to activate it when he got the chance, but hopefully not while anyone from the village was watching or he'd have a hell of a time explaining why a "Messenger of Heaven" had such sinister-looking powers, much less what would happen if he accidentally sucked out a villager's soul. "This is a war. And if this is your first time killing people, then—"

"Hey, big bro, don't be so rough on Aisha," Chouhi said. Her spear was balanced casually on her shoulders, and though she didn't sound much more serious than usual, Ragna still listened to her speak, as her voice had an edge he'd never heard. "She and I both have had to go all the way with bad guys before, so we know what it's like to kill people. All she's saying is that you're gonna make everyone fight bad if you keep being such a downer."

Hearing Chouhi casually admit to killing someone in the past made Ragna's stomach turn, but he hid the reaction well. At her age, or maybe younger, he'd been through a lot worse. He didn't have any right to judge her, and for all that she'd seemed to turn out pretty decently. "A 'downer', huh?"

Chouhi nodded. "Yep. Everyone's counting on you to be the leader, big bro. A leader gets people fired up to fight super-hard. So that's what you've gotta do."

As Ragna and Chouhi talked to each other, their croup came to a small hill that they easily scaled. When they came to its crest, they all saw the Yellow Turban encampment within a charge's distance; they were still far enough away that even a shout wouldn't be heard, but the moment anyone from the camp saw them, the jig would be up.

"This is it," Kan'u whispered. "The counterattack begins now." She turned to Ragna. "My lord, I think it would be prudent to address the troops one last time before we engage. Chouhi was correct earlier when she said that it is your duty to help build morale." Her lips tensed. "If nothing else, it should serve as a reminder to the people that they are not risking their lives in vain."

Ragna sighed, but nodded his understanding with a grunt, and turned to the villagers behind them. They all looked back at him with quiet expectation, their faces set into grim, resolute frowns. After a moment, he took in a short breath and began to speak as loudly as he could. "You all know what you signed yourselves up for, and you all know that some of you ain't going home today," he said. "So I ain't gonna dwell on that—it ain't important. What we do from here is simple." He raised his voice even louder. "If you've got a sword in your hand, kill Turbans! If you've got an arrows in your quiver, kill Turbans! And if one of them tries to kill you, do your damndest to kill them too! They wrecked your home and killed your families and friends, so they deserve no mercy! Kan'u said it back at the village, and so did I—you want us to help you win, you gotta _want_ to win! End of story!"

The villagers let out a wordless roar of determination, and Ragna turned to Kan'u and Chouhi. The former seemed shocked, while the latter looked up at him with stars in her eyes. "It's up to you two now. Don't think they're gonna get any more motivated than that."

Kan'u nodded after a moment, schooling her face back into its usual determined frown. "Your speech was rough, but honest. Those feelings you expressed...I won't betray them, my lord. These people will have their justice."

Ragna groaned and pulled Blood-Scythe free once again, staring at the tanned tents that made up the Turbans' camp. "For the last time, call me Ragna. You saying 'My Lord' over and over again feels weird."

Kan'u smiled slightly and nodded, though Ragna noted that there was a teasing twist to it. "As you wish, Lord Ragna." She then turned to the villagers again, and her face was all business. "Remember the tactics we agreed upon! Every man will attack in pairs! Archers will stand back and fire upon all stragglers that break from the Turbans' ranks!" She raised her halberd high, then pointed it at the Turbans' camp. "I, Unchou Kan'u, will use the might of this Green Dragon Crescent Blade to help you avenge those that you lost to these selfish robbers!"

"Yokutoku Chouhi and the Viper Spear are here too," Chouhi said, spinning around her spear with a sharp grin. "So, everyone, charge! Don't be scared!"

With those final words from his generals, Ragna tensed his legs, then raced down the hill. Kan'u and Chouhi followed after him, and behind them came the villagers that were armed with melee weapons, allowing the archers to stay in the rear. As the group got closer to the camp, the Yellow Turbans met them in force as a disorganized mob, and Ragna was left to charge straight into what appeared to be the largest part of the force while Kan'u went off to the left and Chouhi went off to the right. With a feral roar, Ragna swung Blood-Scythe into the nearest gathering of Yellow Turbans, then plowed on through to the next set. He then gripped Blood-Scythe's handle tighter than before and swore under his breath. _Shit, nothin' came out, _he thought, glowering at his right hand. _Guess this thing really is busted. Gonna have to watch my step now._

The roaring of another group of advancing Turbans caught his attention, and he looked up to see a group of spearmen coming his way. He grunted in annoyance and brought Blood-Scythe down again, splitting most of their spears with the single strike before moving in to crush them with a series of violent punches, kicks, and slashes with Blood-Scythe. Once the enemy laid dead or unconscious at his feet, Ragna shook his head and focused on the nearest group of Turbans, narrowing his eyes. "Screw it. I'll just have to fight without the Azure. These guys are weaker than those Library idiots, and they don't have Ars Magus to help them out either. "

As he said this, though, the Turbans he targeted spotted him, and rushed him much like the last group had. Ragna set his face into a nasty grimace and got ready to move as they came closer. He could hear one of the villagers behind him shout, "Lord Ragna, watch out!"

Without hesitation, Ragna leaped forward, then dove into the enemy group with Blood-Scythe pointed downward. Anyone and everyone under him was either cut apart by Blood-Scythe as he flew into them or knocked away by the force of his landing. As the survivors retreated as hastily as they could, Ragna shouted, "So that's how you all operate, huh? Kick the shit out of all the weak people you want, but someone comes around to kick your shit in, and you run. What a shock!" He turned to the startled villagers, and said, "You ain't gonna lose to shitheads like these, fellas. Get your asses in gear and go! I'm good here, so go help Chouhi and Kan'u! And remember what Kan'u said! Pair up and take them down one by one!"

The villagers soon regained their wits and nodded before doing as Ragna asked, splitting evenly to reinforce Kan'u and Chouhi. Ragna then glared at the backs of the Turbans that were trying to get away from him, and sprinted forward. As he did so, he felt a warmth seep into his right arm, and a flicker of black flame ran along his fingers and vanished. "That's more like it," he whispered. "Still don't need it yet, though... As long as the healing comes back, I'm fine."

Then, he raised his voice as he caught up to the stragglers and lashed out with Blood-Scythe.

"Outta my way, assholes!"

* * *

Elsewhere on the battlefield, Kan'u shouted and spun around her Green Dragon Blade, cutting down a group of Turbans that had attempted to surround her. She flourished the halberd once to clear the blood off of it, then looked at the status of her squad. As instructed, the villagers were taking down men one by one, and in pairs; no one seemed to have incurred any serious injuries yet, and the sight made her smile softly to herself.

"We can do this," she whispered to herself.

A loud war-cry drew her attention to her left side, where a group of villagers were ambushed and cut down by a squad of Turbans coming her way. Kan'u's smile immediately vanished, and she brandished her halberd once more, charging forward this time. A loud shout sounded behind her as she did, though, and she was surrounded by the villagers that Ragna had ordered to assist her. Kan'u gasped in shock, recognizing their faces from when they had split off into the three attacking groups in the first place, but she had no time to ask the question on her mind. Instead, she redoubled her pace and engaged the bulk of the attacking Turbans, allowing the villagers to take on the ones she wasn't keeping occupied. The Green Dragon Blade flashed out again and again, cutting the Turbans open at the chest and the stomach without remorse or pause, while the villagers took on the Turbans in pairs, either taking them down successfully or dying in the process of trying.

It took some doing, but eventually, Kan'u's squad came out victorious, albeit with its share of casualties. Once she was sure that area was clear, she turned her attention to one of the members of Ragna's former squad, trying and failing to keep the heat in her voice and her heart under control, and trying not to look down at the bodies of those that had fallen. "Why are you here? Were you not assisting Lord Ragna!? Were he at full health, it would be one thing, but his wounds have yet to mend. Why would you abandon him!?"

"M'lady Kan'u, he ordered us to go to you and to Lady Chouhi," the villager replied, wiping the sweat from his bald crown and his forehead. "He was killing five Turbans with a swing of his sword. We would have been in the way if we'd stayed."

Kan'u raised an eyebrow in confusion, and looked in the direction that the soldiers had come from. Sure enough, she saw Ragna's wild mop of white hair shining in the sunlight as he killed a Turban with a heavy vertical slash from Blood-Scythe. He then followed that with a vicious spinning kick that knocked another Turban to the ground with a sickening cracking sound. Another slash from Blood-Scythe, this time horizontal, cleaved through a set of Turbans that were trying to sneak up on him. And, though she wasn't quite sure, Kan'u thought she could see small tongues of black fire whispering up from his right hand and arm as he struck and slashed. It might have been a trick of the light, but at the same time she wasn't quite so sure about that.

"I can't believe it," she whispered. "Lord Ragna is that strong, even when injured? It's impossible." She shook her head, and turned to the villager she'd just spoken to. "My apologies. You're correct, Lord Ragna has this well in hand." She turned her attention to the main camp, and heard Chouhi's voice shout faintly over the din and the noise.

"Chouhi squad! Don't stop! If we can get their tents, we win!"

"She'll need time to finish breaking through," Kan'u said aloud. She took another look around; there were quite a few Turbans down. Those that hadn't been killed were trying to get back to the main camp, but were being cut off by infantry soldiers or being shot down by archers.

Kan'u nodded once. _The villagers have already adopted the strategy I was just thinking of using. I suppose I'll just have to help them out!_ She raised her voice and addressed the villagers around her. "Kan'u squad! Let's assist the others! Keep the enemy from getting back to their main camp! General Chouhi's almost broken through their last line!"

The villagers around her roared, "Yes, Lady Kan'u!" and fell in behind her as she surged forward. As they advanced, she spared one last look toward Ragna, who had cleared one cache of enemies and was quickly rushing at the next. He, too, was making his way toward the camp.

Kan'u offered a quiet prayer to Heaven for his safety. She would have sent some of the men back to him just to be sure that he would remain safe, but he had made his position clear and there was no time to argue it on the battlefield.

Time would be their enemy as the fight dragged on. They had to finish things with what power they had left.

* * *

In the end, the battle lasted about two and a half hours in total. The village's population of 3000 had been reduced by about 150 people in the initial raid, and of the remainder, 2000 were fighting fit. Amongst those that went to fight, another 500 were lost. However, the Turbans had sustained much worse losses. Chouhi had taken the camp, but it was not until the majority of the Turbans had been killed, roughly 3500 total, that they surrendered or fled as quickly as they could. In the end, it had been Ragna, Kan'u, and Chouhi's respective (and individually ridiculous) performances that had turned the tide in their favor.

When the villagers returned home after that long ordeal, some immediately went back into the arms of those that they'd left behind. Those that had given everything on the battlefield left a quiet void in the hearts of those that had prayed for their safe return.

Ragna stood at the door to the tavern, watching the faces of those disappointed people, and shook his head. He understood their feelings, and privately was grateful that none of them had come to yell at him or curse him for leading them into battle and causing so many to die. In particular, his skill at fighting had been more than enough to let him be left alone on the field, which had turned out to be a good thing as the battle went on. His Grimoire had slowly started to become more and more active as time had gone on, but only enough to cause a few sparks of darkness and to jump-start his self-healing as more soldiers died. Blood-Scythe had been able to pull souls in from the Turbans he killed, but no one else.

"Actually, that's weird. The Grimoire probably should have gotten some of the dead villagers, too. But it only seemed to take the people that Blood-Scythe hit. The effect should be a little less discriminate than that." Ragna looked at his right hand, and concentrated on it. After a few moments, a weak, flickering black flame enveloped it, then blew out again. No matter what he did, he couldn't get more energy out of his Grimoire; it seemed to have a fixed limit that it didn't have before, and said limit was set extremely low. The only real reason he could think of for the malfunction was a lack of seithr in the environment, coupled with—or compounded by—a lack of power in the Grimoire itself. It had enough power to function—whether from souls or from seithr—but that was it, and he had no way of reading seithr levels in the air to know for sure if that was or wasn't the cause.

"Well, if everyone fights like those idiots around here then I should be fine," Ragna muttered to himself. "And even if they don't, it's a more even playing field for them anyway." He let out a sigh, and leaned his head against the door frame. "I should probably be healed up by tomorrow...find a map, figure out where the hell the closest Hierarchical City is, and get going."

"Lord Ragna."

Kan'u's voice caused Ragna to open his eyes and look in her direction. She was accompanied by Chouhi, Gan, and a number of other villagers. Ragna stood up straight as they approached him, and folded his arms, looking down on them with his usual scowl. "What's up?"

"I wanted to personally thank you for all that you've done," Gan said. He bowed deeply to Ragna, then raised his head. "In fact, it's precisely because of that that I have a favor to ask you. Would you please take over as our administrator?"

Ragna blinked, then raised an eyebrow. "As your what now?"

"The Imperial Court normally appoints a Grand Administrator to supervise a province and assist them in making sure that proper taxes are levied and that the people are living well," Kan'u said. "Going by why Gan was saying earlier, the magistrate appointed to the Zhuo district left when the Turbans came, and took his personal detachment of troops with him."

"Look, man, it's one thing to help you guys with a fight, but I can't be a magistrate!" Ragna shouted. "All I know how to do is hit shit with a sword. I don't know anything about supervising a province or whatever. Besides that, wouldn't the Imperial Court have to approve of me, or appoint me, or something?"

Gan sighed. "Let me spell this out for you. Our old administrator left. He took his soldiers with him. We sent messengers to Luoyang, and the Court didn't send anyone to help us. Zhuo basically got thrown away to the goddamn Turbans, and the Court probably doesn't even give a damn about us any more." He shook his head. "I've been head of this village for a while, even before our administrator ran off, but I ain't got it in me to try and manage a whole district. I'm too old for that nonsense." His sunken gray eyes fixed on Ragna steadily. "Either you take the spot, or we get overlooked by the Court again and again until the Turbans wipe out all of Zhuo and use it to keep their 'rebellion' going."

Ragna felt his stomach clench. Of all the things that he didn't want, being tied down to one place was tops on that list. He had to find a way back to Kagutsuchi, had to get back to destroying cauldrons and fighting the NOL. There was absolutely no way he could allow this to happen.

At least, that's what his head was telling him.

His heart was telling him that it would be crueler to abandon people that were begging him for help. The NOL was most certainly an evil organization, there was no denying that. Someone had to stop them, there was no denying that. But everything Ragna knew to be right was telling him that it would be wrong to overlook these people for the sake of his self-assigned revenge quest.

He stood there, conflicted, for a good while. Kan'u, Chouhi, and Gan all looked up at him, expecting an answer that he literally couldn't give. Finally, he took in and let out a slow breath, and rubbed his face with his right hand. "One day...one day, I'm going back. I got business I have to deal with back where I came from. If you can accept that, I'll be your administrator or whatever."

Gan nodded, and though Kan'u and Chouhi seemed kind of discomfited by the idea of him returning to "Heaven" one day, they eventually nodded their agreement as well.

"Then let's get started," Ragna said. "First order of business—we need the doc to look over all our injured from the fight. After that, we gotta work out how we're gonna do patrols and feed all of these people." He looked at Gan. "You've been doing this kind of thing for a while, haven't ya? You're gonna help out till we know what the hell we're doing."

"Of course, my lord," Gan replied.

Ragna sighed and squeezed his eyes shut, grunting in annoyance. "Could you not do that? My name's Ragna. R-a-g-n-a. Callin' me lord and shit doesn't sit right with me."

Gan paused, then nodded. "Lord Ragna it is, then."

Ragna's response to this was to smack his head against the door frame of the tavern with a long, drawn-out groan. "I give up."

Chouhi grinned and laughed. "Better get used to it, big bro. You're the boss now and people are gonna treat you that way!"

Ragna muttered something unintelligible, and Kan'u simply looked at him with a small smile on her face. He wasn't anything like what she was expecting, but in the end he was brave enough to fight at the front like the rest of his soldiers, and caring in his own way.

_Yes...I didn't choose wrongly,_ Kan'u thought._ Lord Ragna will change this world. And I'll help him every step of the way._

* * *

_A man is given all that he needs to write his own story. Whether he succeeds or fails is left up to him._

* * *

_Azure Within the Three Kingdoms_

_A Blazblue/Koihime Musou crossover fan fiction_

_Written by Zero-Sennin_

_Proverb 1: A Man Is Given All That He Needs To Write His Own Story_

* * *

_So this is my summer project._

_I will be the first to admit that Koihime Musou is not a quality visual novel (Shin Koihime Musou sounds like it's better, but I can't read Japanese fluently enough to make sense out of it), and as an anime it's kind of generic to say the least, but the characters kind of stuck in my head, and eventually one thing led to another and this idea was born. It's persistent enough in my memory that I figured I'd write the whole thing and get it out of my head._

_Those that have played the VN will recognize this as the setting of the first game, but I will be trying to incorporate characters introduced in Shin Koihime Musou as well. Ragna's foul language aside, I'm trying to keep this story relatively clean, so though the plot follows in the vein of the visual novel, certain aspects of the visual novel will be discarded or avoided so that this can stay a relatively clean story—the rating for this story is as high as it is because Ragna swears a lot, and because some characters still do some kind of unsavory/raunchy things, even if there is no explicit detail beyond what's necessary (*cough*Sousou*cough*). The plot points also may not resolve the way they did in the visual novel either, for certain reasons._

_If I can write quickly enough, the plan is to have this finished up by the end of August. From there, I think I'll make a serious effort to get back on track with Substitute School, as that's been something people have been waiting on for a while. I'll be trying to get out one chapter every week (maybe two if I can find a comfortable pace), so please look forward to it._

_Story-wise, there is a reason why Ragna's trip through the cauldron did not cause him to lose his memory. It is related to the reason that his right arm and eye still function despite the fact that his grimoire isn't working properly. This will be addressed in-story, but not for some time yet._

_At any rate, make sure to show up next week to read "Proverb 2: Strength Comes From One's Character, Not Their Size Nor Age"_

_See you all soon._

_~ZS_


	2. Proverb 2

**Zhuo district, Youzhou province**

**Four months after the prophesied arrival of the Messenger of Heaven**

As Ragna sat on the ramparts of the palace walls, the beautiful sound of birdsong wafted overhead. Just beneath him sat the large black gates that led into the palace proper, as stalwart and impregnable as they had been when he had first come here. Now, though, there were actual guards manning it, much like they had before the old administrator had run off.

The wind blew slightly at his clothes. While his pants and undershirt remained unchanged from his first day, the tailors did not make jackets like the one he'd been wearing before his unfortunate fall into the Cauldron (or more accurately, before Nu's attacks had torn it apart), so he'd been forced to settle for a jacket similar to Chouhi's. However, his was colored solid red, lacking the navy decorations on the front, the short sleeves, and the blown-out shoulders; instead, it was fitted normally, and the sleeves extended all the way to his wrists, hiding the bindings on his right arm.

He dangled a piece of grass in his mouth, and let out a long, tired sigh, gazing out over the bustling village of Xizang—no, it was more a city now, Ragna told himself—that now served as the capital of the Zhuo district.

It felt so much longer than it truly had been since his arrival in Youzhou, and it had been a time of much adjustment and adaptation. With Gan, Kan'u, and Chouhi at his back, the villagers had slowly become a group of decently trained soldiers, and commerce began to revitalize Xizang, encouraging growth and a slowly expanding economy. Gradually, Ragna, Kan'u, and Chouhi had been pushing the Turbans out of Zhuo, and in the process, getting more people to move in, swelling Xizang's civilian and military populace.

However, the bitter pill Ragna was forced to swallow even in the face of this good fortune was all the mounting evidence that he was possibly never going to get back to where he 'belonged'—or to put it another way, _when_ he belonged.

He'd never asked anyone about Hierarchical Cities or anything similar again, as it was clear enough after what he had seen that those things simply didn't exist. These people lived a lot like he had lived with the sister, Saya and Jin at the church all those years ago—they pulled water from wells and didn't have bathrooms inside of their homes. They cut wood and used it for fuel. They tilled and harvested the land with the strength of their backs and the sweat of their brow.

Even without that visual proof, though, he'd gotten his last bit of evidence not too long after taking over Zhuo's governance.

Within his first week of administration, Ragna had managed to get his hands on a map of the country, left behind by his predecessor in one of the palace rooms. Ultimately, he'd needed Kan'u's help to read it, and the results disappointed him.

No cities that he knew of were listed anywhere. He did recognize the name of the country, though—but "China" had not existed as its own entity for well over a hundred years. All individual nations had been effectively dissolved with the advent of the Black Beast, as it had destroyed pretty much every major population center thoroughly and brutally. While certain regional names still existed (such as his own birthplace of "England"), they had been generally abandoned in favor of the NOL's system of categorizing Hierarchical Cities. Moreover, there were no maps larger than that anywhere to be found; in fact, Kan'u expressed explicit confusion when Ragna asked about other lands outside of China, and said that few people had bothered sailing the seas to the east, nor had anyone gone much further south than "Nanban". They'd come back with fantastic and strange tales of what was out there, but there were so few willing to make the journey in the first place that it was all hearsay.

As insane as it sounded, Ragna had believed since then that he had gone back in time. It was the only explanation for everything he had seen and lived through with his own eyes from then till now, and it made him wonder just what the hell the Cauldrons actually were if they could be used for time travel. More importantly, though, it made him wonder if Nu had come along for the ride without him knowing about it, and just wound up somewhere else.

He shuddered at the thought, and closed his eyes. He truly felt sorry for whoever or whatever would have to deal with her, and while he would have been happy to put an end to any rampaging she would have done, he would have needed to find her first—and if she was anywhere outside of "China", then that was a trip that he couldn't waste time on. He'd long since lost the ability to to walk away from these people, ever since he had first accepted the role of their administrator and the so-called "Messenger of Heaven". For better or worse, he would have to tough it out and do the job that they needed him for—he had nowhere else to go and no one else to rely on, and they needed him as much as he needed them.

But more than that, he appreciated how much they appreciated him. People respected his opinions and acknowledged his work, sometimes to an uncomfortable degree (there were a lot of gifts still showing up for him at the castle gates, and everyone would stare at him on patrols, oftentimes bowing when he passed by their stalls or shops). He was more used to being hunted like a wild animal, and the positive attention had done a lot to take the bite out of being stuck here.

Still, he couldn't help but wonder if there was a way back to the world he knew, and if he would take the chance to go if he got it.

The quiet sound of wedge-heeled shoes clicking on stone drew Ragna out of his thoughts, and he looked over his shoulder to see Kan'u striding up to him. "Lord Ragna, there you are," she said, frowning softly at the slightly grumpier expression on his face. "Is something the matter?"

Ragna spat out the blade of grass in his mouth and shook his head, then turned back toward the city below and before him. "Not really. Just thinking about stuff." He chuckled dryly. "Still can't believe I've been here a whole four months. Just seems so damn unreal, you know? This place was a wreck back then, but look at it now! Better than it ever was before those assholes came and trashed it."

"Because of you, Lord Ragna," Kan'u said with a smile. "You're the one that brought everyone so close together by fighting off the Turbans and doing your best to support our soldiers and the civilians." She took a few steps closer to him and rested her hands on the wall as well. "And to think you said you weren't suited to this work."

Ragna grunted as he looked over to her. "Trust me, I ain't. We gotta find someone that actually knows something about managing shit that isn't related to armies. We're doing OK now, but none of us in charge know jack squat about things like farming and commerce." He rubbed the back of his right hand, tracing his fingers over the red, bisected shell attached to the back of his glove via a metal plate. "Shit'll get ugly real fast if we don't get a hold of someone that _does_."

Kan'u folded her arms and pinched the bridge of her nose. "Lord Ragna, your language is slipping again."

Ragna shrugged and turned away from her, declining to answer altogether.

_What a stubborn man, _Kan'u thought, sighing in annoyance. How exactly someone so foul-mouthed and irreverent could also be one of the strongest warriors that the Zhou district had at its disposal was beyond her. At the same time, though, she remembered all the small things he did that proved his character beyond the outside appearances.

On patrols, he would move quickly and efficiently, and more than once had beaten thieves unconscious with his bare hands. In battle, his personal unit had yet to see a single casualty, as he would mow down the majority of the enemies in his way and leave his soldiers to clean up the confused stragglers—that, and he trained them personally in his own unorthodox style of combat to mimic his successes on a smaller scale. And despite how roughly he spoke to people, he never seriously spoke down to them, whether it was a civilian, Gan, or even herself or Rinrin. He was honest when someone gave him bad ideas, and didn't always suggest a solution, but the way he spoke somehow made it clear that he took issue more with bad ideas and not the people that suggested them.

A smile crossed her lips, and Ragna happened to turn back toward her to see it, as he'd started wondering why she was so quiet. When he saw the expression on her face, he raised an eyebrow. "The hell are you smiling about?"

Kan'u blushed, and shook her head, but before she could speak, she heard footsteps approaching from her right. Both she and Ragna turned to see an infantryman in green livery come up to them, bowing shortly. "Lord Ragna, Lady Kan'u," he said. "We received a messenger from the border. He says that one of our outposts just got raided by Turbans."

Ragna's confused expression became razor-sharp hostility the moment he heard those words. "Oh, really? Where are the bastards headed next?"

"Here," the soldier replied. "The messenger said that General Kousonsan was on the way back to her Ryousei district, but she basically planted herself down to block the Turbans' passage into Zhuo. She's holding them even as we speak, and she's requesting backup of some kind. If she takes too many losses, we might have to engage them on our own."

Ragna cracked his neck, then scowled as he looked out to the city again. "We'll march to Kousonsan's position and carve up some Turbans. If we wait for them to make it into our territory, they're gonna kill a hell of a lot of people, and I'm not about to let that shit fly."

"Then, shall I go and give the orders to the troops, Lord Ragna?" Kan'u asked.

"Not just yet," Ragna replied. "Come with me to talk to that messenger first. Soon as we find out where we're headed, we're marching out, double-time. And someone tell old Gan he'll be running the place again 'till we get back."

The soldier saluted. "Leave that to me, Lord Ragna. If I may?"

Ragna waved a hand in his direction. "Yeah, you're dismissed. Thanks for the heads-up."

The soldier bowed and departed. Ragna knitted his fingers together and stretched downward, grunting at the pleasant burn in his left arm, then turned to face Kan'u with a grim smirk on his face. "Ready to go deal with some morons?"

Kan'u nodded once, her mouth set into a firm, businesslike frown. "As always, Lord Ragna."

* * *

Thirty minutes later, Ragna, Kan'u, and Chouhi were on the move. Going by the messenger's report, Kousonsan had actually managed to make it pretty far into Zhuo before the Turbans had started to bottleneck her. At the least, she'd made it past the ransacked border outpost that the Turbans had hit, and was holding camp about an hour and a half away from Xizang, along the major roads that would lead further into the province.

The size of their current forces numbered at an even 5000, with 2000 light infantrymen, 2000 heavy infantrymen, and 1000 archers. As generals, Ragna, Kan'u, and Chouhi each commanded a unit composed of 100-man squads. Thirty soldiers in each unit served as the private force for each general. The messenger had reported that up to 10,000 Turbans had been seen in the area, but that didn't bother anyone overmuch. The Turbans had always outnumbered them for the most part, but as time had gone on sheer numbers simply failed to account for the skill of the Zhuo armies.

Still, it would be a tough battle to get through, and though the men in front of them and behind them cracked jokes all the while, Kan'u's mind was directly focused on how to defeat the Turbans' superior numbers, while Chouhi was looking forward to just beating up the Turbans, and Ragna was wondering when in the red hell they were going to reach Kousonsan's camp. He could deal with the walking, but the sameness of the plains around them was beginning to drive him a little bit crazy.

About fifteen minutes out from Kousonsan's current location, Ragna finally gave voice to his internal boredom. "The hell does everything around here look the same for? No farmlands, just a bunch of birds and deer and shit."

"Most settlements aren't big enough to extend out this far, Lord Ragna," Kan'u replied. "If you'll recall, we just passed the last village in this area, and they just didn't have the population to warrant building up their farmlands like we have in the capital. There are some villages built around the border outposts of the province, but those are a lot less like normal villages than most are. Pretty much all of them are there to help support the garrison."

Previous skirmishes hadn't taken him out nearly as far as the border, so this was the first Ragna was ever hearing about such things. He wanted to see for himself now, but he knew that business was business—they had Turbans to exterminate, and Kousonsan had to be saved somehow or another. "That so? Huh."

Chouhi nodded. "Yep! Lots of soldiers' families live there, if they can. A lot of the supplies are there mostly for them."

The conversation was interrupted when a soldier ran up to them, looking slightly wild-eyed. "Lord Ragna! There's a group of civilians up ahead, running from a detachment of Turbans. They seem to be farmers from that village we passed earlier. We can see General Kousonsan's camp not too far from here, as well; the detached force seems to have snuck around her blockade."

"How many Turbans and how many civilians?" Kan'u asked. Her Green Dragon Blade had been in her hand since the start of the ride, but her hand clenched more tightly around the green scale-patterned part of the shaft, just below the head.

"Thirty civilians and at least 10,000 Turbans."

Ragna sucked a tooth and growled from his chest, and drew Blood-Scythe. "Shit, then that report we got was for a detached force? Their main body could have twice as many then. No way in hell we're gonna be able to pull off the main fight unless we rescue Kousonsan." He turned to Kan'u. "Aisha. We gotta get those civilians safe, but there's no way we can take all 10,000 of those bastards unless we're all together. We'll get up to there, double time, then you take your people and grab those farmers, get them to safety. Then we regroup and make those Turban assholes fuck off. Clear?"

Kan'u was shocked that Ragna was using her true name in such a serious situation, as he would normally choose to not call her by name at all, but she managed to hide her pleasant surprise behind her stoic, serious mask. He was using his no-nonsense, no-arguments tone of voice, and she he had to match his attitude pound for pound. "As you wish, Lord Ragna."

"Rinrin." When Ragna said her name, Chouhi perked up with a 'nya?' sound. "You and I are gonna be the vanguard and cover Aisha till she gets back." His voice was already cool, but it somehow got positively arctic as he continued. "If I get an arrow in my ass like last time, you're grounded when we get home, got it?"

"Yes, big bro," Chouhi mumbled, hunching down with a grimace on her face.

The three generals immediately quickened their pace while Kan'u shouted out the new orders, and the rest of the army followed behind in double time. After about a ten-minute march, they caught up to the farmers in question, and Kan'u immediately broke off with her squad to take them to safety. Once she was gone, Ragna simply stared into the distance with Chouhi at his side; they could both see the Turbans about fifteen minutes away from them. Chouhi immediately made a catlike growling sound. "What're we gonna do, big bro?"

Ragna stuck Blood-Scythe into the ground and leaned on it as he stared forward. "Put arrows in their faces when they get close enough, then start cutting them down. We last till Aisha gets back, we win."

Chouhi nodded, then frowned. She could see something else moving in front of the Turbans, and so could Ragna. After a minute or so, they both realized that they were seeing four people running straight at them. One was an older woman, while the others were three girls, two of which looked to be about twelve or thirteen while the other was eighteen or so; the Turbans coming after them were still a fair distance behind, but would catch up soon.

Ragna's response was immediate and to the point as he ran towards them, gripping Blood-Scythe so hard he thought his fingers would explode from the pressure. "Shit, stragglers! Rinrin! Let's go!"

Chouhi snapped off a salute. "You got it, big bro!" She then turned to her unit and the remaining forces. "Let's go, people!"

* * *

To put it bluntly, neither Koumei Shoukatsuryou nor her friend Shigen Houtou had been expecting the rather fine mess that they had gotten into today.

According to rumor, the Messenger of Heaven had settled in Xizang and taken over as administrator for the district, and was leading a tough extermination campaign against the Yellow Turbans. For that reason, both Houtou and Shoukatsuryou had come down from the mountain retreat of their master Shibaki to put their training to tactics, medicine, and general municipal work to good use in his service; they both felt that their young appearances would not prove to be an obstacle once they proved their skills to the Messenger of Heaven.

On their way down from the mountains, they'd met a girl named Gentoku Ryuubi. Her mother had died recently, and with no ability to take care of the family estate, she'd gone traveling for a new home. The three girls bonded instantly, and decided to travel to Xizang together.

Their trip had gone relatively smooth until they'd arrived in Zhuo. Not more than a few minutes ago, the village they were staying in had been attacked by the Yellow Turbans, forcing a small part of the populace to flee from the attack. Shokatsuryou, Houtou, and Ryuubi had managed to stay together in the chaos, but had stopped to help an old woman named Lien to escape from the village as well. Ultimately, they had fallen behind the group of farmers that Kan'u had rescued earlier, and at the moment, all four of them were still attempting to outrun the Turbans.

Shoukatsuryou huffed and panted as her brown military beret and the green ribbon on its right side bounced on her head, and the tails of the green bow at her back trailed behind her in the wind. She wore a brown top with puffy sleeves; underneath her white skirt was another blue dress and white stockings, complimented by sturdy brown shoes. Her breathing was heavy and labored, but she kept on going regardless. On her left side, Houtou managed to keep pace despite the fact that both girls were carrying rather bulky backpacks. Though they wore similar outfits, Houtou's clothes were navy-colored, the bow around her waist was tied at the front, not the back, and she wore no stockings; moreover, her hat was more like a stereotypical witch's hat, with the same green ribbon that Shoukatsuryou wore tied around it. Her silver hair was up in two pigtails, a sharp contrast to Shokatsuryou's short-cut bob of blonde hair.

Lien was on Shokatsuryou's right side, between her and Ryuubi, dressed in a simple brown cloak with a matching dress underneath it. Her eyes were almost completely shut, and her face was bleak and weathered; a few strands of gray hair escaped the simple bun she'd pulled it into. Though she was moving as quickly as she could, she was noticeably a few steps behind the younger girls accompanying her, and said, "You all should go on without me. I'm only slowing you down."

Shoukatsuryou was the first one to reply to the old woman, shaking her head vigorously as she did. "Absolutely out of the question! We won't leave you behind."

Houtou couldn't spare breath to speak, but nodded with equal fervor to accentuate Shoukatsuryou's point. Lien frowned at them, but before she could speak again, Ryuubi put a hand on her shoulder, causing her to look in Ryuubi's direction.

Ryuubi's green tunic and the white shirt beneath it were dripping with sweat, and the maroon dress she wore as well as the skirt under it were stained with the dirt that she'd been kicking up as she ran. The straw mats rolled up on the harness on her back bounced in time with her steps, and though her long pink tresses were flowing freely in the wind, the expression on her face was grim and determined. A sword in an ornate, white-and-gold sheath dangled on her left hip.

"We escaped together, and will keep escaping together," Ryuubi said. "That's all there is to it. If I have to, I'll carry you myself."

The old woman was left speechless at this, but eventually put a smile on and faced forward again. "Then I'll do my best."

Emboldened by that remark, Ryuubi faced forward, then blinked. In the distance, she saw two figures—Ragna and Chouhi—charging right at them. And behind them was what appeared to be a full army, keeping ranks and lines even as they matched the speed of the two figures leading the way.

"Oh, no, who are these people!?" Ryuubi asked, her brow creasing with worry. "There's no way we'll be able to outrun two armies..."

Shoukatsuryou looked harder at the two figures leading the other army toward them, then smiled as she made out more details on Ragna's figure. The bells on the collar of her jacket jingled merrily as she began to run faster. "A strange sword in his right hand, and hair as white as the driven snow...Touka, that tall one is the Messenger of Heaven! That's the Xizang army behind him! They're here to save us!"

Lien gasped, and nearly stumbled over her own feet. "The Messenger of Heaven? I'd heard that he was wiping out the Turbans, but never in my wildest dreams did I think he would lead the charge himself...!"

In what seemed like moments, Ragna and Chouhi came to a halt right in front of Shoukatsuryou and the others. Chouhi looked over the assorted group, and blinked in astonishment. "Two kids, a girl, and an old lady? Wow, you all are lucky we got to you! How did you outrun those Turbans for so long?"

Despite the stress of the situation, Shoukatsuryou couldn't help but to thrust her chest out a bit and put her hands on her hips. "I'm not a 'kid', you know! I'm mature and responsible!"

"We don't have time for this shit, squirt," Ragna said, immediately cutting off the conversation before it could continue. "All of you get behind me right now so we can kick the shit out of these Turbans in the next ten minutes."

Lien immediately did so, as did Ryuubi, but both of them paused when neither Shoukatsuryou or Houtou did the same. Instead, both of the young strategists were staring up boldly at Ragna, albeit with frightened, watering eyes. The slightest tinge of pink was on Shoukatsuryou's face, as well, but Ragna completely missed it due to how intense her expression was.

Ragna groaned. "You two deaf or something?" He gestured to where Lien and Ryuubi were standing. "Get over there, already!"

"L-Lord Messenger, wait," Shoukatsuryou said. "Please, allow me and Hinari to assist you. We-we're trained strategists. Right now, your forces lack a decisive numerical advantage, and we know of several strategies that can offset that. I know it seems strange, but...please, please allow us to help!"

Ragna was about to wave her off again when Kan'u came rushing up, panting slightly but otherwise fine. "Lord Ragna, we got the villagers to safety..." She paused for a few moments and stared blankly at Lien, Ryuubi, Shoukatsuryou, and Houtou, then back at Ragna and Chouhi. "Who are these girls and why are they here when the Turbans are coming to attack us?"

Ragna gestured to Shoukatsuryou and Houtou with a tight frown. "The shortstacks say that they're strategists." He shook his head. "Take them, the old chick, and the girl, and send them off with my personal guard while we take care of the Turbans. We ain't got time for this shit."

Kan'u nodded, but as she reached out to Shoukatsuryou, the girl shook her head and stepped back. "Please, hear me out! Hinari and I truly want to help. We wanted to find the Messenger of Heaven and serve him, help his forces to fight. We couldn't sit by and let the Turbans have their way. Master Suikyou was hesitant to let us go, but she understood when we told her why. Please...you have to let us help you."

For the first time, Houtou managed to speak aloud, and her voice was so soft that it could barely be heard as she turned to Ragna. "Please, Lord Ragna. Let us aid you."

Ragna stared blankly at both Shoukatsuryou and Houtou. They were clearly nervous as hell, but they showed no signs of moving, even as Kan'u's expression grew as stormy as his. Eventually, he flung his left hand upward and rolled his eyes. "Fine, then. If you're that damn serious, let's hear it." He focused on the two small strategists. "It's 5,000 to 10,000 in their favor, and this isn't even their main force. What can we do to minimize our casualties and maximize theirs, then break through to Kousonsan?"

Shoukatsuryou and Houtou looked at each other, then each put a hand to their mouths, and each tapped one of their feet against the ground. After a few seconds of this, Houtou snapped her fingers and nodded. Shoukatsuryou looked at Houtou again, then nodded as well, and smiled. "Go ahead, Hinari."

Emboldened by Shoukatsuryou's encouragement, Houtou looked up at Ragna without a trace of her earlier nervousness. "The Yellow Turban forces do not use formations," she said. "There are a number of flaws that could be exploited as a result of that habit, but the most effective in this particular situation, considering the lay of the land, would be to use a twin column formation to trap them between your soldiers and press in on them."

Kan'u frowned, and opened her mouth to speak, but Shoukatsuryou picked up the thread shortly after that. "However, you lack the manpower to make that work. In that case, we can get results similar to Hinari's suggestion if we use two elite forces to strike them in a pincer attack after their forces have been weakened. The vanguard would need only to hold the line for a while, or find a way to cause the enemy to panic, at which point the two elite units would be able to counterattack."

_They caught the flaw in the plan and came up with a decent alternative before I could point it out, _Kan'u thought, resting her free hand under her chin. _And the strategy is simple, but sound._

"Sounds good to me, big bro," Chouhi said suddenly, nodding. "I think they know what they're talking about, kids or not."

"It is a simple idea, but it is effective," Kan'u added. Both Shoukatsuryou and Houtou jumped slightly at the endorsement from Kan'u, but there was clear approval in Kan'u's firm smile and nod as she turned to Ragna. "Lord Ragna, we can use their plan. It will work."

Ragna shrugged. "Fine then. I'll run the vanguard." He looked at Kan'u and Chouhi. "Aisha, midget, your units are the pincers. When you hear the war horns, grab your guys and kick some ass." He then pointed to Shoukatsuryou and Houtou, and his frown grew harder. "Shortstacks. Go with the girl and the old woman, _now._ Once we beat these idiots, we'll talk about taking you on full-time."

Both Shoukatsuryou and Houtou's faces began to glow red from the compliment (Shoukatsuryou's more so), but they soon recovered their wits enough to bow shortly, and go over to where Ryuubi and Lien were standing. Ragna nodded at a nearby soldier, and he led the four civilians away, leaving Ragna and his two generals to look at the approaching Turbans.

"Why the hell didn't we come up with a strategy like that earlier?" Ragna said to Kan'u, raising one eyebrow. "I never would've expected two squirts to think of something like that before my main general did."

"My tactics are generally based more around practical application and not theoretical situations," Kan'u replied, pursing her lips and looking away from Ragna. "Well, that, and it simply never occurred to me to try a pincer formation. We never quite needed its like before to deal with the Turbans, so I never thought of using it."

Ragna took notice of her peeved tone, and smirked as he turned on his heel and faced their army. "Now, now. No need to get all jealous about it. I'm pretty sure they'd be willing to teach you a thing or two if you ask nicely."

Kan'u stiffened considerably, then let out a puff of angry air from her nostrils. "I am not jealous, Lord Ragna!"

"Don't deny it, Aisha, it only makes you look more jealous~" Chouhi called over her shoulder. She was already jogging over to her squad with her Viper Spear slung over one shoulder.

"Rinrin!" Kan'u's face could have cooked an egg with the heat coming off of it now. "Don't make me more upset with you than I already am! I-if I have to, I'll spank you!"

"Scold the kid later, now isn't the time to play 'mother'!" Ragna shouted. "Go talk to your god damn troops and make sure they're ready to roll! Need I remind you that Kousonsan is still waiting for us to bail her ass out?"

Ragna's harsh rebuke immediately jolted Kan'u back to attention. "I-I-I'm sorry, Lord Ragna!" Kan'u said, nearly dropping her Green Dragon Blade in the process of jogging over to her troops at double time. "You can count on me!"

Ragna's soldiers snickered as he turned back to them, and he let out a low growl that shut them all up and put all eyes back on him. Knowing that only the ones in front had heard the plan, he pitched his voice to carry farther back. "All right, fellas, listen up. We got a new trick to try out on these idiots." He pointed a thumb behind him, where the mob of Turbans only grew larger and larger as they approached. "Kan'u and Chouhi's units are going to pincer these guys as soon as we break them down a bit; when we've gotten through, I want every herald in each squad to blow a horn so that the other two units know when to close in. Till then, our job is to push these guys to the breaking point with minimal casualties on our end. Get it?"

Every soldier looked at Ragna with pure business faces, all the jokes forgotten. They'd long since been used to fighting superior numbers when dealing with the Turbans, but the difference hadn't been quite this disparate before, and some of the troops were honestly a bit spooked by the idea of having to hold off all of those Turbans until the time was right for a pincer counterattack.

Nevertheless, there was one rule that the Zhuo army followed, ever since Ragna, Kan'u, and Chouhi had taken it over: "If you can breathe, you can fight, and if you can fight, you can win."

Ragna looked over the silent soldiers standing in front of him, and let out a hard breath through his thin nose. "I asked you all a question. Do you all GET IT!?"

The soldiers roared their affirmative, and Ragna brought Blood-Scythe to his side, waiting for the final moment. When at last the Turbans came over the crest of the hill and began to charge, Ragna didn't move, and stared at them with his green-and-red glare. When at last the first Turban leaped at him, spear rushing toward Ragna's heart, Ragna lifted Blood-Scythe up, spun it out of its reverse grip, swung it down to the ground—and cut through that Turban like cheap paper.

"Gentlemen, let's show these fellas some Zhuo hospitality," Ragna said with a smirk.

And with that order, the battle burst into a frenetic melee.

All of Ragna's troops surged forward, and their feet made a sound like resounding thunder in the air. The Turbans immediately rushed in to match them, but were soon gutted on the spears of the Zhuo army; the few that avoided that grisly fate were cut down by either Ragna or one of his troops, with cold, impersonal precision. The Turban front line immediately retreated as the Zhuo forces made their initial impression, allowing Ragna to move forward and continue the assault while they were getting ready to run.

"Don't run, you bastards!" a Turban commander shouted. He slashed at one of Ragna's men, cutting the man from collarbone to stomach, then raised his curved blade with a nasty grin. "We outnumber them almost two-to-one! There's no way these Zhuo bastards are gonna keep beating us!" He slashed out at a few more of Ragna's soldiers, spilling their blood onto the soil as he hacked at limbs and torsos. "We won't—_**I**_ won't—ever lose to the likes of some bastard calling himself the Messenger of Heaven, either!"

Ragna did not hear this man's boastful cry personally, but it was somewhat poetic that when he did attack the next group of Turbans that he saw, he did so with a jumping sword slash that blew away half of the men around the commander.

The poor man had enough time to whisper a fevered prayer before Ragna followed that attack up with a spinning kick that clipped the commander's head and broke his neck.

* * *

Ragna's personal squad had taken Shoukatsuryou, Houtou, Ryuubi, and Lien to a nearby hill; from there, they all observed the battle against the Turbans in relative silence. The three girls stood next to the unit captain, while the rest of the soldiers surrounded them. For about half an hour, everyone present watched as the red-and-black flags signifying Ragna's unit of soldiers slowly moved through the mass of Turbans. Kan'u and Chouhi's units had moved into flanking positions further away from Ragna's unit and the Turbans, waiting for the right moment to strike.

At the thirty-minute mark, Ragna charged into a group of Turbans with his left fist outstretched, then went into a spin while maintaining the momentum of his dash. Because he extended his right arm out during the spin, the result was a semi-circular slash in front of him using Blood-Scythe; any Turbans that got caught by either of the attacks were sent flying. As soon as he did that, though, he just charged forward again, still clutching Blood-Scythe in his right hand.

"My goodness, it's a rout," Shoukatsuryou said, slowly shaking her head. The hill was close enough to the battle that the soldiers and the civilians could see (and hear) the Turbans scattering in front of Ragna like dead leaves. "Is it always like this when Lord Ragna gets into a fight? Why is he alone up there?"

"It's a standing rule that no one fights in close quarters alongside Lord Ragna," the captain replied, wincing slightly at the sight of the Amazing Flying Turban Show. "He says that he was always up against large groups of opponents, so he developed his style to let him deal with multiple enemies at once. He can do equally well in one-on-one duels, but when it comes to actually fighting alongside other people he's not used to it yet. His unit is mostly based around making sure that he can advance safely."

Houtou folded her arms and made a thoughtful noise, then spoke up. "That is a critical flaw. If the unit is only acclimated to supporting Lord Ragna's charge, then their defensive ability is poor. The unit that has the lord of the province leading it must be more secure than that."

The captain gave Houtou a withering glance, though when she shied away from him, he realized his mistake and eased up on the scorn in his expression. "We did run defensive formations and tactics with Lady Kan'u, so we're not totally ignorant about how to manage a defensive position. We just specialize in the very nuanced art of allowing Lord Ragna to vent his frustrations with the world by using his enemies as training dummies."

Ryuubi frowned gently, and shook her head. "It looks more like he's just slaughtering them from here. I never thought that someone called the Messenger of Heaven would be so violent and gruff." She looked carefully at Shoukatsuryou and Houtou. "Shuri, Hinari, I don't know if I'm comfortable staying in this province if someone like that is in charge. Do you two really want to work for this man?"

Another group of Turbans went flying through the air, and Shoukatsuryou flinched slightly at the sight of the corpses hitting the ground moments later. "Lord Ragna's heart is in the right place, Touka," she said, "though his methodology could use some work." She adjusted the straps of her backpack and clasped her hands together. "He was willing to listen to me and Hinari when we advised him, and he deliberately moved his army up so that he could secure our safety. If someone's willing to try and work with him, I think he can be convinced to let go of some of his...less positive habits."

Ryuubi still looked unconvinced, but before she could speak again, Lien interrupted her. "He's a rough man, indeed, but I've seen his kind before. They know what the right thing to do is, even if they don't like to admit to it sometimes. They are stubborn and determined, and that gives them the strength to see things through from start to finish." A small smile crossed her wizened face. "A good woman would settle him some, I think, but it'd have to be...delicately done."

The captain stared at Lien with a flat frown on his face, while the rest of the soldiers snickered. Because of this, he failed to notice the blush that crossed Shoukatsuryou's face at that suggestion. "Lord Ragna isn't the kind of man to be distracted by women. There have been a few...incidents in Zhuo already, and needless to say that he put a stop to any talk of him cavorting around with women when all that was said and done."

Lien's smile grew wider. "So a young man like him has a shy side, eh? All the more reason for the right girl to try and sweep him off of his feet. It'll be good for him!"

Ryuubi looked over to Shoukatsuryou, and saw that the young strategist's face had gone completely red. Frowning, Ryuubi walked over to Shoukatsuryou and waved a hand in front of the smaller girl's face a few times. "Hey, Shuri, are you all right? You're spacing out..."

Shoukatsuryou seemed to wake up from a trance, and shook her head rapidly. "Hawawa?! I-I'm fine, Touka! Don't worry about me." She smiled up at Ryuubi in a way that made it seem like she was forcing her mouth to stretch across her face. "I was just...um...I was thinking about something, that's all!"

Ryuubi's expression was doubtful to say the least, but she didn't have time to press Shoukatsuryou about it, as the loud blare of war horns cut through the air. The soldiers surrounding them began to whistle and hoot, and the captain in particular leaned forward a bit more, scrutinizing the battlefield. As expected, Kan'u and Chouhi's units were moving in, and the Turbans were sandwiched not only between them, but also had to deal with Ragna's unit still coming at them from the front.

On top of that, it seemed that Ragna had somehow acquired a large black horse and was darting up the center of the battlefield, killing Turbans every step of the way.

"Looks like Lord Ragna managed to break through," he said. "That'll be it for the Turbans, then." He looked to his soldiers with a grin on his face. "Once the Turbans have been mopped up, we're moving down there double-time. Lord Ragna's probably going to want to get to Lady Kousonsan as soon as he can."

"Yes, sir," the soldiers shouted.

Shoukatsuryou was seriously re-focused now that her strategy was coming into play, and she watched the movements of the troops intently. Houtou and Ryuubi did so as well, and were not entirely surprised when the mass of yellow below them was eventually swallowed up by the green livery of the Zhuo forces.

"They did it," Houtou whispered. "Shuri..."

Shoukatsuryou nodded, and smiled softly. "It worked perfectly. Surely, Lord Ragna will be willing to accept our help now..."

Ryuubi gave the two strategists another concerned look, then fixed her eyes on Ragna's red-and-black flag. _I still don't know if I want to trust that man,_ she thought, biting her lip._ If Shuri and Hinari get too close to him, and he hurts them, then...what can I do?_

Unconsciously, she toyed with the hilt of her sword. She didn't know how to use it, but if it came down to defending her friends, she would do whatever it took to keep them safe.

Even if that meant challenging the Messenger of Heaven himself.

* * *

**Some moments earlier**

Ragna took a moment to stop attacking everything yellow in sight and looked around the battlefield, flicking Blood-Scythe clean. As usual, his soldiers had given him a wide berth, leaving him surrounded by groups of injured or dead Turbans lying on the ground, and many of the others that were trying to reach him were being solidly repelled by his unit.

"They still seem pretty determined, though," Ragna muttered. "Gonna have to see if I can find the guy really calling the shots and take him down. That might shake 'em up a bit."

He heard a sudden clopping of hooves behind him, and turned to see a muscular, bronze-skinned man in Yellow Turban armor ride up to him on the back of a black warhorse. However, the armor was far more intricate looking than the standard fare, trimmed with silver and including blue iron plates on the arms and legs, and his face was covered by a wild, brown beard. A number of other Turbans in similar armor surrounded him, wielding swords and lances, but stepped back once his horse stopped moving.

"So you're the Messenger of Heaven?" the man said, sneering down at Ragna. "Pathetic. How did our men lose to someone like you?"

Ragna tightened his grip on Blood-Scythe, and the Azure Grimoire let out another spurt of irregular flame that came and went too quickly to see. "They suck, is how. Now you mind telling me who you are so that we can get this over with?"

The man's nasty expression grew darker as he got off of his horse. Dismounted, he easily stood at even height with Ragna. Without hesitating, he drew a sword from the sheath at his side, and pointed it directly at Ragna. "Zhao, leader of this brigade. And your executioner."

Ragna rolled his left shoulder and spread his legs out slightly, going into a slightly crouched stance. "Better men than you have tried and failed to pull that shit off. If you think you can, though, bring it. I could use the exercise."

Zhao's smirk gradually faded, and he slowly began to step to the left. Ragna moved to the right with the same low speed, not once removing his eyes from Zhao's face.

Then, the larger man suddenly charged with frightening speed, flattening the grass beneath his booted feet with each step. He brought his sword down in a powerful overhead strike the moment he got within arm's reach, and Ragna immediately brought Blood-Scythe up to block the blow. With a grunt, Ragna pushed Zhao back, then punched Zhao in the face with his left hand. However, before he could pull up Blood-Scythe to attack again, Zhao's spearmen rushed in as well, thrusting their weapons at him, and Ragna was forced to step back to avoid getting skewered.

Once he recovered himself, Zhao laughed and shook the stars out of his eyes, then rushed forward again with his swordsmen at his side. "Ha! Not enough, boy!"

Ragna reflexively concentrated on his right arm, and though a tongue of black fire did rise up from the red shell on the back, it disappeared almost instantly and his arm soon began to throb in agony, enough so to nearly make him drop Blood-Scythe. Immediately, he stopped trying to draw on the Azure's power, and his arm went back to normal just in time for him to roll out of the way of a strike from Zhao. However, it left him off balance, and one of the swordsmen tagged his left arm with a stray slash, causing him to stumble backward.

"All it takes it one misstep, and you're done for," Zhao shouted. His spearmen advanced again, pulling back their lances for a coordinated strike to the downed Ragna. "Now die!"

Ragna stared up angrily at them, but stilled his impatient heart until the right time. Before they could stab him, Ragna swept Blood-Scythe outward in his usual horizontal slash. The spears were knocked away, and Ragna got back up immediately, charging forward once again. "You first, asshole! I don't have time for your petty tricks!"

The spearmen closed ranks in an attempt to block him, but by the time they got their weapons back up, Ragna shoulder-checked his way through them, and leaped up into the air. The moment he lifted off, he raked Blood-Scythe upward, slashing an unfortunate Turban open from groin to chest, and roared, "Inferno Divider!"

The screams—and condition—of Ragna's target caused Zhao to step back in shock as Ragna's forward momentum proved to be enough to bring him within striking distance of Zhao. Shortly afterward, Ragna twisted around and swung Blood-Scythe downward with both hands; Zhao stepped back to avoid the blow, but Blood-Scythe's tip slammed into the ground, knocking down Zhao and everyone else around him. Ragna landed with a grunt, and once he got back to his feet, began to methodically stab any and every fallen Turban in sight as he walked toward Zhao.

"Get up, you worm," Ragna muttered. "I'm gonna kill you on your feet if nothing else."

A Turban charged him from the side, attempting to stab him with a spear, but Ragna dodged the attack by stepping backward. He grabbed the poor fellow by the back of the head, and slammed him face first into the dirt before stomping on his back, breaking it with a muffled crunching sound. By the time Ragna then turned back toward Zhao, the Turban commander was back on his feet, and swinging his sword at Ragna again, going for a horizontal slash this time.

Ragna swung Blood-Scythe downward, but deliberately put some extra oomph into it, and Zhao's blade snapped cleanly in half. The man gaped in shock, but had no time to react before Blood-Scythe pierced straight through his gut and erupted out of his back, shattering the armor on both sides of his body.

After a moment, Ragna pulled Blood-Scythe free, and allowed Zhao's body to fall over. The remaining members of Zhao's personal guard stared at Ragna as if he had emerged from the very pits of Hell before their eyes, and Ragna's response was to widen his eyes as he swept his stare over all of them. "If you wanna run, run. If you're gonna fight, then come on. I'll make it quick."

Every single Turban turned away from him and ran off, leaving only the dead Turbans, Ragna, and Zhao's horse in the general vicinity. Ragna flicked Blood-Scythe clean again, then sheathed it and walked over to the horse. It didn't look in his direction, and nickered softly, letting out a puff of air from its nostrils. After studying the saddle and the stirrups for a moment, Ragna walked around to the horse's left side and took the reins in his left hand, gripping the horse's mane gently. He put his left foot into the stirrup, then put his right hand on the front of the saddle, pushed off the ground with his right foot, and mounted the horse, easing himself into the saddle with a grunt.

"Just like Aisha showed me," he said to himself, putting his right foot into the other stirrup. "All right, fella. Let's go ride around a bit and scare these assholes to death." He squeezed the horse's sides gently, and it took off at a nice pace as Ragna clumsily drew Blood-Scythe once again.

Moments later, the Turbans would see Ragna riding on Zhao's horse, cutting down every Turban he could see as he bounded across the battlefield. Their ranks broke shortly afterward, and following Ragna's order, the heralds sounded their horns.

With the signal received, Kan'u and Chouhi charged in, and the Turbans were destroyed in another fifteen minutes.

* * *

_Strength comes from one's character, not their size or their age. The young can be weak if they are weak-willed, and the old can be strong if their will is indomitable._

* * *

_Proverb 2: Strength Comes From One's Character, Not Their Size Or Their Age_

* * *

**Bonus Story: A Reckoning of the "Bride Incidents" in Xizang (from the text "A History of the Shoku Kingdom")**

**Zhuo district, Youzhou province, Xizang**

**Two months after the prophesied arrival of the Messenger of Heaven**

The arrival of the Messenger of Heaven had greatly changed things in Xizang. Every day, more and more people were flocking to the town in the hopes of finding glory in his service or simply to get a glimpse of him, and its numbers were swelling rapidly as a result.

And with this boom in population came those who were more interested in getting to know the new administrator of Youzhou in a more personal sort of way.

At first, it was relatively straightforward. Women from all over the province, particularly those of modest means or more, would introduce themselves to Lord Ragna during times when he was seeing visitors during the daytime. Often, the women would offer an alliance with their families to Lord Ragna, but inevitably said offers always involved taking the women as wives or consorts, leading him to refuse them.

After several such rejections, Lord Ragna soon found himself dealing with a more persistent crowd of suitors.

One woman, Mei Li, got the guards at the front gate drunk one night and sneaked into the palace, avoiding the others with stealth and speed. Then, she crept into Lord Ragna's room, thinking that he would be asleep; she figured that if she...served him directly, he would be more amenable to the idea of a marriage.

Needless to say, she was rather surprised when Ragna's eyes shot open the moment she opened his door and his six-foot frame was towering over her, burning holes in her head with his red-green glare and putting Blood-Scythe to her neck. She fainted on the spot, and Ragna hand-delivered her to the Li family's home the next morning with a pithy verbal warning: "Your daughter sleepwalks. Try to get her to stop that, please."

Another time, a gift from the Fei family was delivered to the palace in a large wooden box. When Lord Ragna opened it during a casual meeting, figuring that the gift would be something of interest to the court, the second daughter of the family, Jian, popped out without a strip of clothing on, declaring that her body was to be the Fei family's tribute to Lord Ragna.

Old Gan had been present at the time, and proceeded to nearly die from the rather large nosebleed that he experienced shortly afterward. Lady Chouhi's response was to remark, "Sis's boobs are way better, big bro. If you're gonna stare at a pair, stare at hers."

Unsurprisingly, the first thing Lady Kan'u did when she managed to get over her shock was punch Lady Chouhi in the back of the head, followed by several shrieked declarations of "Lord Ragna, please don't listen to this stupid child!" and "GET THAT WOMAN OUT OF HERE THIS INSTANT!"

Perhaps the most audacious attempt, though, came during one of Lord Ragna's routine patrols of the city. While he was passing by a tea shop recently opened up by the Yuan family, he was grabbed by the arm and pulled into said tea shop, then given a sample of tea laced with a slight sleeping powder.

At the time, his guards had been in front of him, so because the entire exchange happened so quickly, none of them noticed that he was gone until about five minutes after the fact, and when they found him, his shirt was off and he was stumbling drunkenly down the street with the Yuan triplets hanging on to him like a life preserver, naked as the day they had been simultaneously brought into the world.

Lady Kan'u had come across the scene shortly afterward since she'd been wondering what was taking Lord Ragna so long to finish his patrol, and in her rage, nearly cut the triplets off of him herself before he managed to calm her down.

Even so, he went around sporting a black eye for a few days as a result of the whole debacle, and that particular part of the city remained closed for a week due to the property damage caused both by Lord Ragna's escape from the tea house and Lady Kan'u's attempts to rectify the situation.

It is because of these incidents that the terms "Fei family present" and "a Yuan tea-house coat" became popular in the Xizang vernacular as shorthand for "a pleasant surprise" and "being mobbed by women", respectively.

* * *

_First off: __a big thanks to Raximus for giving me some information about SKM that I might be able to use in future chapters as characterization notes._

_A bit later in the day than I intended to post it, but here's chapter 2 for you all. I was initially going to cover both parts of the Kousonsan campaign in this chapter, but I realized it was just getting too damn long, so it's been split in half._

_The extra stories are just little anecdotes of the time in-between timeskips (like the one between chapter 1 and chapter 2). Some of them may be similar to the "base phase" incidents you see in KM and SKM, while some of them are more along the lines of what you saw here today. _

_This is my first time doing a side story as an ongoing part of the main story, so I hope it didn't come across as too wordy or inferior to the main story. __Hopefully one of the next ones will give you all a chance to see what kind of fun Ragna had developing those riding skills that were hinted at this chapter. If, on the other hand, you readers would prefer to see them as standalone chapters or to be split off into a separate story, I'm happy to oblige you on that front, too._

_I'm still trying to settle on a decent way to cover the battles, mostly because even without the Grimoire you can expect Ragna to keep tearing through anyone that isn't a general, and it's going to get boring for you all to keep reading over that kind of relentless destruction over and over again (that, and the way the KM visual novel does the simulation parts of the game is really tedious and not at all inspiring for the mind). _

_Anyway, that's all I've really got to say about this chapter. Come back next week for __ "Proverb 3: Bonds Are Forged Strongest In The Furnace Of War"._

_Take care, and enjoy._

_~ZS_


	3. Proverb 3

**Zhuo district, Youzhou province**

**Four months after the prophesied arrival of the Messenger of Heaven**

Shoukatsuryou had earlier described the Zhuo army's battle against the detached Turban force of 10,000 soldiers as a "rout".

That particular choice of words was a bit understated to say the least.

The bodies littering the trampled plains made a rather gruesome contrast to the afternoon sun overhead and the bright blue sky that held it. Once the Turbans caved to the pressure from the Zhuo army, it had been all over for them.

Thankfully, Ragna's personal unit had the sense to lead Ryuubi, Shoukatsuryou, Houtou, and Lien around the battlefield and not through it. Ryuubi at least couldn't help but look over at the few Turban bodies that they did see, though, and her stomach turned violently at the sight of them.

Once they caught up with the rest of the army, they made their way to the front, leaving a tired Lien in the care of one of Ragna's other squads. As they approached Ragna, they saw that Chouhi and Kan'u were standing beside him while he slowly and gently petted the flank of the black horse he'd mysteriously acquired during the battle. His jacket was draped over the horse's saddle, and some bandages were visible under the torn forearm of his shirt.

At a respectable distance, the captain of Ragna's personal squad stepped in front of his men, and Shoukatsuryou, Houtou, and Ryuubi all followed closely behind him. He saluted crisply and said, "Lord Ragna, I have the two strategists here to see you."

Ragna turned around, and Ryuubi blinked as she took a closer look at him. The vigorous figure racing across the battlefield on the back of that massive black horse was completely different from the somber-eyed young man that was looking at her, Shoukatsuryou, and Houtou right now. He didn't seem smaller, just...less imposing, calmer, even. It was very much at odds with the vision of Ragna in her head.

"Thanks, Yin," Ragna replied. "You're dismissed. Get the guys ready to march."

Yin bowed and walked away, leaving the three girls behind. Ragna stopped petting the horse, and gave his full attention to Shoukatsuryou and Houtou. "You saved our asses today, girls," he said. "Didn't turn out so hot for some of my guys, but they'll live. Had to break the perfect record sometime. How about you introduce yourselves so that I don't have to keep calling you by shitty nicknames?"

Despite the coarseness of Ragna's speech, Shoukatsuryou bowed first. "My family name is Shoukatsu, and my first name is Ryou—Shoukatsuryou. My given name is Koumei."

Houtou mirrored Shoukatsuryou's action, though she had to grab her hat to make sure it didn't fall off. "My family name is Hou, and my first name is Tou—Houtou. My given name is Shigen."

Ryuubi bowed as well, causing the sword at her side to clink in its scabbard as she raised her head. "My family's name is Ryuu, and my first name is Bi—Ryuubi. My given name is Gentoku."

Ragna nodded, taking a moment to put each face to each name. Then, he focused on Shoukatsuryou and Houtou again. "Koumei, Shigen. Did you two seriously mean it when you said you wanted to join up with me?"

Shoukatsuryou's voice raised in pitch to a slight squeak as she answered, and her cheeks were flushed red. "Y-Yes, Lord Ragna! Your reputation has been spreading all across the continent, even to where we were in the mountains. You are most certainly a skilled warrior, but even so you too might need the services of skilled strategists, especially if you continue to grow like you have." She twiddled her thumbs, and looked away from him slightly. "There have been talks of other districts within Youzhou that might want to ally with you, and if you consolidate enough power I'm positive that you could one day be a match for Sousou of Gi and Sonken of Go."

Ragna folded his arms and shook his head. He'd heard plenty of stories about Sousou and Sonken even before meeting Shoukatsuryou. Go and Gi were the two largest kingdoms on the continent, and their rulers were strong, ambitious young women with a desire to ultimately conquer the entirety of China. Those dreams would remain an impossibility, though, as long as the Imperial Court remained in power. It would never allow any ruling power, save itself, to control China.

"And why exactly would I want to be a match for either of those hellions, anyway?" he asked. "I ain't got any interest in conquering anything."

Shoukatsuryou frowned, and looked at Ragna again. She put her hands on her hips and pushed out her chest, but unlike the last time she'd taken this pose, her expression was serious, not petulant. "Lord Ragna, I know you're not that naïve. If they came to perceive you as a potential threat to them, you know they would not hesitate to target you. Even if that scenario never comes to pass, it is vital that you are prepared to deal with it in case it does. You won't be able to match them unless you either have strategists on your side or can handle the matter of tactical maneuvers by yourself."

Ragna snorted, then smirked as he spread his arms out. "Hey, now, you don't have to get all crabby about it." The teasing expression on his face gradually disappeared. "Still, I didn't know I was that popular outside of Youzhou. Never figured anyone to pay attention to shit like that unless they lived here." He looked over Shoukatsuryou's head, gazing at the soldiers waiting for their marching orders, then nodded again. "You saved our asses out there today with that strategy of yours. Far as I'm concerned, you and Shigen have both earned your place with us, Koumei."

Shoukatsuryou and Houtou both gasped in astonishment, then smiled widely. For a brief moment, Ragna recalled a familiar face—a girl with green eyes and blonde hair, smiling the same way—but the moment passed as soon as it came.

Why exactly these two had reminded him of Saya, he didn't know, but he hadn't been struck with the same queasiness that had hit him when he'd seen Nu's face, or even that Noel Vermillion girl's.

"Thank you, Lord Ragna," Shoukatsuryou said, bowing deeply again. "And please, call me Shuri. As your vassal you don't need to be so formal with me."

Houtou shyly adjusted her hat, then looked up at Ragna again. "...and you may call me Hinari."

Ragna shrugged. "Fine by me." He looked over at Kan'u and Chouhi, who had been watching in silence the entire time. "You two are OK with this, I take it?"

"It's as you said, Lord Ragna. Their strategy eased our casualties tremendously," Kan'u said. Her Green Dragon Blade was in the custody of one of her unit's soldiers, so she had both hands free to fold her arms under her bosom as she appraised Shoukatsuryou and Houtou once again. "It would be a waste to not retain them."

Chouhi smiled, nearly crinkling her eyes shut. "I don't have any complaints either, big bro. Besides, Koumei and Shigen sound like they're super-smart, so now you and old Gan don't have to do all that boring paper stuff back in Xizang anymore. That means we can play and go have fun in town~"

Ragna bluntly responded "Like hell" at the precise moment that Kan'u said "Absolutely not, Rinrin". The two then looked at each other with raised eyebrows.

"I see you've become more diligent after all, Lord Ragna," Kan'u remarked lightly, slightly narrowing her eyes. "Why, not even a month ago you would have been happy to go and run off when important work needed to be done."

Ragna grimaced. "Not with that little hellion. The last time I went into town with her she ate enough food to empty my wallet for the next two weeks."

Chouhi pouted and rubbed the skintight navy sleeve that covered her right forearm. "I was hungry, big bro. Sorry for being a growing girl."

"You should have been a ballooning girl considering how much goddamn dim sum you inhaled!" Ragna replied, throwing up his arms. "If I took you out to eat every week, I'd be spending more than what we have in the damn treasury. If I'm gonna skip out on all the boring shit Aisha puts me through, I'm gonna damn well do something that doesn't cost me all the money I have on me."

Kan'u let out an indignant grunt and opened her mouth to retort, but simply couldn't find the words, growing redder in the face with every passing moment. Ragna was seemingly unperturbed by this, and shook his head. "Enough of this shit. We need to get to Kousonsan's camp. Aisha, Rinrin, give the marching orders. Shuri, Hinari, you're with me." He gave Ryuubi a sidelong glance. "And what about you? Ryuubi, right? You never said if you wanted to hang around one way or the other. If you can wait until after we settle this, we can get you anywhere you want to go."

"If it's all right, I'll stay with you, sir," Ryuubi replied quietly. She was more than a little bewildered at the strange interactions between Ragna and his vassals, mostly because of how it clashed with what she expected him to be like. The blank looks on Shoukatsuryou and Houtou's faces indicated pretty clearly that they were about as confused as Ryuubi was, but soon enough, they schooled their expressions back to normal. "I was traveling with Shuri and Hinari to find somewhere else to settle, so if you'll have me in Xizang, I would be grateful."

Ragna mounted his new horse without pausing, then turned it slightly to get a better look at Ryuubi. "Yeah, no problem. Just stick with us and we'll get back there eventually. You can tell me the rest of your story when we get to Kousonsan's camp, all right?" He turned the horse again, and nudged its sides, snapping the reins gently; immediately, it went forward at a slow trot.

Ryuubi nodded, and moved to catch up with Shoukatsuryou and Houtou; Kan'u and Chouhi had already departed as Ragna had ordered them to. "Yes, sir."

"And quit calling me sir, damn it," he said over his shoulder. Somehow, Ryuubi could feel the scowl in his voice. "Just Ragna, please."

"Very well then...Lord Ragna."

The groan that came out of Ragna's mouth was drawn-out and full of suffering.

* * *

After another fifteen minutes of marching, the Zhuo army came across a camp set on the crossroads near the edge of the district. A roughly erected wooden wall encircled a large white tent and a number of smaller surrounding ones, and the soldiers guarding the main entrance were dressed in gray and white clothing; it was just bright enough to stand out quite distinctly in the sunlight. At the front of the army, Ragna, Kan'u, Chouhi, Ryuubi, Shoukatsuryou, and Houtou were all together. Ragna was leading his horse, giving it a break from bearing his weight, and his jacket was back on, removed from the saddle of his horse.

Ragna shaded his eyes with one hand as the army approached the entrance to the camp; the sunlight was bouncing off of the tent and the soldiers' uniforms. "Shit, is she trying to blind us on purpose?"

"General Kousonsan is often called the White Horse General," Shoukatsuryou replied. However, she too was squinting her eyes. "It seems that her taste in color choice extends to more than just her mounts, though."

The soldiers at the camp's entrance raised their spears once Ragna and his group were close enough to talk to. The one on the left side of the entrance gave Ragna an appraising glance. "And you are?"

Ragna rolled his head around and folded his arms with a shrug of his shoulders. "Ragna. I just kicked the crap out of some Yellow Turbans that got past your campsite. Let me see Kousonsan."

The soldier that had spoken looked mildly impressed, but the one on the right was significantly less composed, and his eyes widened. "Ragna, as in Ragna of Zhuo...? Then, y-you're the Messenger of Heaven!"

"So I've been told," Ragna said. "Now if you're done letting your jaw scrape the dirt, would you mind letting me through?"

The guard immediately nodded, and stepped out of the way, as did his partner. Ragna turned to Kan'u and Chouhi. "You two stay here with Ryuubi and the army. I'm taking Shuri and Hinari in with me to see Kousonsan. When we're finished figuring out what we're doing next, I'll come get you."

Kan'u nodded, and took the reins from Ragna when he offered them to her. The horse shifted slightly, and looked in Ragna's direction for a little bit, then turned away again with a slight snort. "As you wish, Lord Ragna."

With that, Ragna, Shoukatsuryou, and Houtou all went into the camp, leaving Ryuubi to clasp her hands behind her back and dig her big toe into the ground with an awkward smile. Chouhi immediately turned to the soldiers and shouted, "Take a break, everyone! Big bro is figuring out what we're gonna do next!"

Kan'u stroked the horse's mane a few times as Ryuubi kept looking between her and Chouhi. Neither general seemed interested in carrying on a conversation with her, but the silence eventually got so awkward that she almost wanted to run away. However, Kan'u seemed to notice her discomfort, and asked, "Is there something bothering you?"

Ryuubi flinched in surprise, but eventually managed to put on a weak smile. "I...I'm not really sure what to do right now, I guess. I'm not used to being around this kind of crowd."

Kan'u blinked, and stopped petting the horse. "Well, I'm certain that Lord Ragna's offer to relocate you somewhere else still stands. If you'd like me to take you somewhere else, I can speak to him about it."

"N-no, that's not what I meant exactly," Ryuubi said, her face growing slightly flushed with embarrassment. "I'm fine with waiting until we get back to Xizang. I think that that'll be a good place to settle down." Her expression gradually went from flustered to pensive as her eyebrows drew together. "We didn't travel together for very long, but Shuri and Hinari have come to mean a lot to me in that time. I got lost in the forest a couple of days after I left home, and they found me before I starved to death."

"As long as they're working with us, we'll treat them right," Chouhi said. "Shou and Hou look like they're really smart. We need people like that. Big bro and old Gan try their best, but..." She paused, and scratched her head. "Nya, how do I put it..."

"As you can see, Lord Ragna takes a rather unique approach to leadership," Kan'u said, finishing Chouhi's thought while the young girl was still trying to figure out what she wanted to say next. "It works well enough on the battlefield, but in terms of civic matters it can be a little unhelpful. I know enough to help him and old Gan keep things running smoothly, but Shoukatsuryou and Houtou look like they'll be much better at advising him than me, at least as far as managing the city and its resources."

As she listened to them talk, Kan'u's calm confidence and Chouhi's cheerfulness eased Ryuubi's nervousness quite a bit. Combined with the somewhat less frightening image of Ragna she'd seen earlier, Ryuubi was beginning to feel much less apprehensive about Shoukatsuryou and Houtou's safety amongst the Zhuo forces. Still, the aftermath of the battle that day lingered in her mind, and she turned toward Kousonsan's camp, absently brushing the red gemstone set in the pommel of her sword. Kan'u noticed this, and asked, "By the way, Ryuubi. That sword, where did you get it from?"

Ryuubi shook her head as Kan'u's question brought her out of her daydreams. "It's a family heirloom," Ryuubi replied. "My mother always used to tell me that our family was descended from Chuuzan Seiou Ryuushou, and that this sword was from his dynasty. We don't have any real records of it, though, and if there were any in my home, I can't get to them now."

Kan'u's eyes widened. Chuuzan Seiou had been a legendary emperor in his time, one of the most well known in all of China. If Ryuubi was his descendant, she was practically royalty all her own. "Why not?"

Ryuubi squirmed a bit, and pressed her lips together very tightly for a few moments, then looked down at the ground. "My house was built on rented land. When my mother died, I was allowed to retain it, but I couldn't make enough money to keep paying the rent, so the landlord repossessed it and kicked me out. She probably took everything that I had to leave behind or let the new tenant keep all of it."

The atmosphere took a sudden turn when Kan'u's brow darkened at that news. "I see," she said. A sudden ominous wind blew Kan'u's ponytail backward as her hands clenched into fists. "Ryuubi, we should take a trip out to your home once you're settled in Xizang. I would like very much to meet this landlord of yours."

Ryuubi laughed nervously and put her hands up in a placating gesture. The hard frown on Kan'u's face was a reminder to Ryuubi that Kan'u had a temper to match her maturity. "Really, Lady Kan'u, that isn't necessary. I appreciate the sentiment, but it's all right."

"It most certainly is not!" Kan'u retorted. "Even if the land was not yours, any items left behind in that house most surely belong to you. If nothing else, you should go and see if they still remain." A small, surprisingly scary smile crept across her lips. "And if they do, the landlord _will _give them back to you."

Something about how calmly Kan'u spoke that threat made Ryuubi's skin crawl. Even if it was for her sake more than anything else, the sheer malice in Kan'u's voice made Ryuubi wonder if her landlord would survive even standing in the same room with Kan'u with the kind of enraged aura that the general was throwing out.

"Lady Kan'u..."

"When Aisha gets like this there's no stopping her," Chouhi said to Ryuubi, shrugging with a catlike smile. "Don't worry. If big bro goes with us he can probably keep her from doing something really stupid. Though he might not want to after the last time..."

Something about the way Chouhi said "the last time", and the doubtful look on her face, made Ryuubi feel like going to curl up in a little ball somewhere.

* * *

Ragna, Shoukatsuryou, and Houtou didn't have to travel too far in the camp to find Kousonsan. She was standing outside of the main tent of the camp, surveying the entire place with a weary frown; injured soldiers were resting all over the place. Another woman, about Ragna's age or possibly a little older, stood beside her, looking over the camp as well.

Kousonsan herself was an average-height redhead, dressed in a white breastplate and gauntlets with a pink Chinese dress underneath the armor, and another short dark skirt beneath the dress. Pink gloves covered the the upper part of her arms, and she wore sturdy white boots. All of her clothing was trimmed with gold, and her hair was held up in a short ponytail by a matching white-and-gold crown-like accessory.

The other woman with her had blue hair, cut to just above shoulder length in the front with a thin low ponytail at the back. She wore a white skirt with long, flowing sleeves and padded shoulders. The top and the bottom were detached from each other, exposing her upper body and part of her back. The sleeves were decorated with bronze butterfly-wing patterns, and she wore long white socks and black, thick-soled slippers. A black ribbon was wrapped around her waist, and tied into a huge bow at her back.

As Ragna and his group approached Kousonsan, she looked at them without changing her expression. Ragna could clearly see the growing bags underneath her amber-colored eyes. Her companion also looked to them as well, focusing on Ragna in particular, and something about how intense that woman's face was made Ragna pause for a moment.

"The boys told me about you," Kousonsan said without preamble as Ragna came to a stop a few paces away from her. "The Messenger of Heaven, right?"

Ragna nodded, but couldn't stop the sigh and the groan that escaped him. "I'd prefer Ragna, if it's not too much to ask. Everyone else calls me either the Messenger of Heaven or Lord Ragna and it's a little tiresome after a while."

Kousonsan returned the nod, then bowed shortly. "Ragna, then. Thank you for coming to help. I appreciate it. My scouts told me about the fight you had earlier; the Turbans you fought blitzed the camp to get past us. We took a couple of them out, but the rest were able to slip by. I was about to try and figure if I had the manpower to chase them down when you showed up and took care of them." She sighed, and squeezed the bridge of her nose with her fingers. "The way we were set up, I wasn't expecting the bastards to try and get through. I figured they would have gone to Qiao or Hebei instead since we had the road blocked. Guess they didn't want to aggravate Sousou or Sonken."

Ragna shook his head. "If anything, I should be thanking you. You didn't have to plant down here and try to keep those smarmy assholes from getting further in." He gestured to Shoukatsuryou and Houtou. "These two are my strategists, Koumei Shoukatsuryou and Shigen Houtou. They'll be helping us figure out what the next move is." He then looked at Kousonsan's companion. "And you are?"

"My family name is Chou, and my first name is Un—Chou'un. My given name is Shiryuu," the woman replied. Her violet eyes were cool and calm, and stayed completely focused on him as she addressed him. The white ornament on her head gleamed in the sunlight, and a thin red ribbon was tied around a hole on its left side. "I volunteered to assist Lady Kousonsan with the defense effort."

Ragna clapped his hands together. "Good, introductions over. Next order of business." He looked at Kousonsan again. "How many Turbans are in the main force and how many soldiers do you have?"

"I've got around 5,000 men fighting fit," Kousonsan said flatly, putting one hand against her hip. "The Turbans have five times that. The only saving grace is that they're not due to attack for a while yet; we've got maybe two or three hours, if that."

Ragna managed to avoid groaning, but only just. Those numbers didn't look good at all. "We'd need to go back and get a tally of our side, but we're probably going to get lucky if our total forces hit 10,000. I'm not really seeing a lot of options here."

"We don't particularly need a lot of options," Chou'un said. "We only need the one that is most effective for our situation." She allowed a cold smirk to cross her face. "The Turbans are a bunch of undisciplined rabble. All we need to do is break their ranks, break their confidence, and then, break them. Between myself, Unchou Kan'u, Yokutoku Chouhi, and Lord Ragna, we should be able to do that."

Kousonsan and Ragna both blinked, though Kousonsan recovered first. "And who exactly are Chouhi and Kan'u?"

"My generals," Ragna said, narrowing his eyes as he looked at a still-smirking Chou'un. "How exactly Chou'un knows about them, I don't know, but she's right—if it's those two and me, we can handle our fair share of Turbans."

"Lord Ragna, this isn't the same situation as the last battle," Shoukatsuryou said. Her face was drawn into a hard mask, and she looked every bit the strategist that she sounded like. "We're outnumbered by an order of at least five to one. No one would be able to sustain a consistent performance in the face of numbers like that."

Ragna closed his right eye and grunted. "Preaching to the choir, kid. I admit, the plan's got guts, but I wouldn't take on odds like that back where I came from, and I was stronger then."

Houtou spoke next, clasping her hands in front of her and allowing the wide brim of her hat to hide her eyes slightly. "I might have a few ideas about how to make up the difference in our forces. However, it will involve very precise troop movement and management, and if we make a mistake, our situation will be extremely bad."

Kousonsan gave Houtou a speculative glance, wondering how someone so shy-looking could be a strategist, but didn't push the issue. "Well, we've got the time. No reason to not make use of it. Let's hear it."

Houtou raised her head a little bit, exposing her eyes, and began to speak. "We obviously will have to engage the Turbans on the western side of the blockade. We'll need Lady Kan'u and Lord Ragna to start things off with their personal squads backing them up. Lady Chouhi's squad will need to follow up behind them. However, before the charge, Lady Chouhi's unit will increase the number of flag-bearers that they have."

Shoukatsuryou nodded, immediately seeing what Houtou was suggesting. A small smile spread across her face. "The Turbans will think we have more soldiers than we actually do, and that will shake their confidence. Excellent idea, Hinari!"

"After that," Houtou continued, acknowledging Shoukatsuryou with a blush and a nod, "Lady Kan'u and Lord Ragna will retreat, allowing Lady Chouhi's unit to engage the Turban vanguard. At that time, Lady Kan'u and Lord Ragna will have to join up with their units again and use the pincer maneuver that we used on the Turbans before." She raised a finger. "This time, though, we have to leave a way for the Turbans to escape so that they don't try to break through all at once; if they still have a way to retreat, they'll likely fight without concentrating all their forces. If Lady Kan'u and Lord Ragna come in from the rear and surround the Turbans from behind, that will drive them toward the camp. It is at that point that General Kousonsan and General Chou'un should be able to lead their own charge from the camp and help us pin them down. Since the Turbans' numbers will be greatly reduced, they will be easily killed at that point."

Kousonsan closed her eyes for a few moments, then nodded, allowing herself a genuine smile. "Sounds good to me."

Chou'un made a thoughtful humming sound, frowning softly and slightly. "It's sound. However, I have a small request. Would I be able to take the initial charge with Lord Ragna and Kan'u? General Kousonsan is more than capable of directing the soldiers without my aid."

Houtou pursed her lips, and lost the confident manner that she'd been speaking with up till that point. "W-Well...It shouldn't be a problem..."

Chou'un took that hesitant remark as confirmation enough to turn to Kousonsan next. "Then, Hakukei, if you have no objections, I'll be going out on the front."

Kousonsan's smile gave way to an annoyed frown and a sigh. She waved her hand dismissively, and the irritation on her face made it clear that something like this wasn't exactly new to her. "Hungry for the battle as always, eh, Shiryuu? If Ragna's fine with it, then go ahead. It's as you said, I can direct my own troops just fine."

The smirk came back to Chou'un's face. "Lord Ragna?"

Ragna opened his right eye again, and returned Chou'un's violet-eyed stare with his own. "You've been looking at me like a goddamn side of meat this whole time, so you obviously got something you wanna prove to me. Guess this is your chance, isn't it?"

The smirk widened, and Chou'un's eyes narrowed slightly at the unspoken challenge. "It is. Thank you, Lord Ragna."

Kousonsan clapped her hands together and nodded once more. "Then I think it's time to prepare our troops. Bring your army in, Ragna, and station them by the west gate. I'll have my scouts report to you when they sight the main force." She fixed Chou'un with another annoyed glance. "Going by your statements, Shiryuu, I'm assuming that this is going to be your final engagement under my command."

Chou'un folded her arms. "That is so. Hakukei, you are a competent and thoughtful general, and it was an honor to fight at your side. However, I don't think that I can continue to serve under you. I'd like to go out there and see what else there is in China."

"That's fine," Kousonsan said. Her harsh expression relaxed slightly. "One day you'll probably figure out what you're looking for and settle down somewhere. Whoever you wind up serving will probably end up being damn near unbeatable."

Chou'un similarly softened her smirk into a genuine smile. "Maybe, maybe not." She turned to Ragna, Shoukatsuryou, and Houtou. "Shall we go? I need to stop by my tent to pick up my spear first, though."

* * *

Back at the eastern entrance to the camp, Chouhi was sprawled out on the ground and staring up into the sky, her eyes half-opened; Ragna and the others had been gone for about a half-hour now. Most of the other men in the army had done the same, while Kan'u had decided to take the downtime to take stock of the men. There had been a few fatalities, about fifty or so in total, and almost three times as many casualties. The injured could not be sent back to Xizang in their condition, so they would likely have to stay in the camp as the literal last line of defense.

Surprisingly, Ryuubi had gone with Kan'u, and following Kan'u's rudimentary medical advice, helped some of the soldiers field-dress their injuries. Kan'u had been rather surprised by how well Ryuubi had taken to the work, even though she had been clearly discomforted by some of the wounds she saw. The soldiers themselves responded well to her attitude, and the thanks they gave Ryuubi made the younger girl blush.

As Kan'u and Ryuubi came back to where Chouhi was laying down, Ragna, Shoukatsuryou, Houtou, and Chou'un came out of the camp and walked straight over to Chouhi as well. Chouhi immediately sat up with a sleepy mewling sound and joined Kan'u and Ryuubi, padding through the grass with her always-bare feet.

Chou'un was now carrying a rather unusual spear in her hands; the shaft was normal, colored black with a gold weaving near the head. but the head was made up of two separate crimson prongs, one laid on top of the other. Kan'u gave Chou'un a brief cursory glance before looking back to Ragna with a warm smile. "Welcome back, my lord. How did the strategy meeting go?"

Ragna shrugged. "We got a plan, and we can probably pull it off." His features sharpened slightly. "I need troop numbers though. How many did we lose?"

Ryuubi spoke up without thinking. "About fifty men actually died. Lady Kan'u and I were able to treat some of the others..." She faltered as she realized that she'd interrupted, and went completely pale. "Pardon me, I didn't mean to..."

To Ryuubi's surprise, no one objected. In fact, Kan'u shook her head and patted Ryuubi on the shoulder with her free hand. There was a gentleness in the motion that Ragna rarely saw in her. "You did nothing wrong, Gentoku." She then re-focused on Ragna. "As Gentoku was saying, we were able to treat some wounds, but we've lost another 150 men outside of the fifty fatalities. I'd send them back to Xizang, but they're not healthy enough to march on their own."

Shoukatsuryou frowned and put a fist to her chin. "4,800...if that's the final tally, we didn't lose too many men all things considered. 9,800 to 25,000 will still be difficult, but if we use Hinari's plan, it should be fine."

Chou'un smirked and planted the butt of her spear into the ground. "The strategy itself is sound. I seriously doubt that there will be any trouble with that." She saw Kan'u giving her another challenging glance, and inspected Kan'u's Green Dragon Blade with an arched eyebrow before looking Kan'u directly in the eye. "That halberd...you're Unchou Kan'u, then?"

"I am. And you are?"

Chou'un immediately caught the slight edge in Kan'u's voice, and bowed shortly, clearly indicating that she meant no disrespect. "Shiryuu Chou'un of Changshan. I've heard a lot about you, Yokutoku Chouhi, and of course Lord Ragna. I asked General Kousonsan to let me fight alongside you for the express purpose of witnessing all of your techniques myself."

Kan'u's expression looked flat and bored, but Ragna could tell from the way that her eyes flashed that she was sizing up Chou'un even more carefully now. "I see. So you'll be with us during the attack then?"

"Yes," Chou'un said, allowing a slight smile back onto her face. "It'll be an interesting experience. My compliments to young Houtou. She's very good at what she does."

Houtou blushed, then cleared her throat as she adjusted her hat and looked around at the other generals and Ryuubi. "Actually, I would like to explain it to you all, if you don't mind. The Turban forces could be here within the next two hours or so, according to General Kousonsan, so I'd like to make sure we have time to clarify everything and make sure everyone is on the same page."

A chorus of assents and nods was the reply to that statement, and Houtou took advantage of the silence to explain everything that she'd said during the meeting with Kousonsan. Once she finished, Kan'u looked at Houtou, while Chouhi kept nodding with a catlike smile.

"I never would have thought to use extra flags to make the enemy think we were greater in number than we were," Kan'u said. "A brilliant strategy, Houtou. Though it concerns me that you put Lord Ragna in with us. He is normally...not very good at fighting with others."

"Just gimme breathing room and it'll be fine," Ragna replied, tapping Blood-Scythe's hilt. "This stupid thing just happens to have a lot of range, is all. No different from you, or Rinrin, or Chou'un."

As if seeing it for the first time, Chou'un examined Blood-Scythe. Her eyes opened up from their normal narrow cast as they did so, and Ragna was surprised by how innocent it made her look. "Indeed. A sword like that seems terribly uncomfortable to use."

Ragna shook his head. "After the kind of hell I got put through when my master Jubei taught me, learning how to use this thing was pretty much a piece of cake. Ask any of the guys in my unit, and they'll tell you the same. I train them using the same shitty tricks that my master did, and every day they leave the training grounds calling me eleven kinds of devilish bastard." He allowed himself a wry grin. "Works out all right for them, though."

Chou'un returned to her normal sly expression, and cocked her head slightly as she looked at Ragna. Kan'u's face began to redden at the sight of the slight teases in Chou'un's smile at Ragna. "We'll see for sure soon enough, won't we?"

Chouhi looked over at Kan'u, and laughed. "Aisha, are you OK? You look mad about something~ Are you jealous again? It's like I told you when that lady popped out of that trunk. You've got bigger breasts—"

Kan'u's glare probably would have skewered Chouhi to the ground if such a thing were possible. For reasons that no one except Chouhi and Kan'u understood, Ragna suddenly went red in the face and promptly turned away from the entire conversation.

"Rinrin, will you stop saying such things!?" Kan'u shouted.

* * *

After that rather awkward moment, two hours came and went without incident. Ragna, Kan'u, and Chouhi went to their units and explained the plan; if any of the men doubted if it would work, they didn't let it show. The break allowed another fifty of the injured men to recover to the point where they felt comfortable fighting, but the others went to the camp and joined with men in Kousonsan's army that were equally injured.

It went unsaid that if the battle came to them, then it was already lost, and they would be butchered by the Turbans.

Ragna left the horse he'd taken from Zhao in the care of the camp quartermaster. Apparently it was a stallion of fine breed (Ragna hadn't bothered to check the private bits, so to speak, so he'd had no idea it was male). When asked for the horse's name, Ragna shrugged and said something to the effect of "Shit if I know, I'll think of one later".

Needless to say, the tension amongst the Zhuo officers, Kousonsan, and Chou'un only grew as the time passed. Ryuubi busied herself by helping out in camp, working with the doctor to dress some of the soldiers' wounds, while Ragna went with Shoukatsuryou and Houtou while they introduced themselves to the Zhuo soldiers; since they would need to be present on the battlefield, they would stay with Chouhi's unit to observe the battle, and sound the signal for Ragna, Kan'u, and Chou'un to retreat. Chouhi laid back down for another nap, and Kan'u borrowed a whetstone to sharpen the edge of her halberd. Chou'un simply went to the western exit of the camp and stared forward with a frown on her face, with her spear at her side; Kousonsan was looking over the horses with the quartermaster.

Then, a scout came back, riding one of Kousonsan's famed white horses. His message resounded loud and clear, and spread to all corners of the camp: _the Turbans will arrive in fifteen minutes._

The flurry of activity that consumed them for the next ten of those minutes was nothing short of raucous and dizzying, but in the end, they were ready.

On the western outskirts of Kousonsan's camp-blockade, Ragna, Kan'u, and Chou'un were at the head of Ragna and Kan'u's personal squads. Directly behind those squads were Chouhi and her units, flanked on the left and the right by the rest of Ragna and Kan'u's units; Shoukatsuryou and Houtou stood directly with her, as planned.

After a tense few minutes of waiting, the sounds of stampeding feet began to cut through the thick air. Ragna, Kan'u, and Chou'un didn't flinch as the thundering noise grew louder and louder.

As the Turbans slowly began to appear on the horizon, gradually spreading across it like a blot of golden yellow, Ragna unsheathed Blood-Scythe with a quiet clinking sound. He spread his legs out, bringing the sword to its usual place in its usual grip. At his sides, Kan'u pointed the tip of her halberd downward and raised the rear; Chou'un held her spear just at waist height and tilted the head upward slightly, then took a moment to look to her left and see how Ragna was holding his weapon before focusing her eyes front again.

Ragna cracked his neck as he began to clearly see the individual faces of each bandit advancing on them. "Aisha, Chou'un. Are you ready?"

"As always, Lord Ragna," Kan'u replied sharply.

Chou'un chuckled, and tapped her foot against the ground. "Hm, hm. I feel as if I am, yes. If I die, I suppose that will answer that question, won't it?"

Then, there was no more time for words.

The Turbans that arrived first immediately attempted to swarm and surround them. Ragna rushed forward, spun Blood-Scythe into a two-handed grip, and lashed out with two vicious horizontal slashes the moment that he knew Kan'u and Chou'un weren't in his striking range. There was a sickening sound of metal breaking and flesh tearing as the wave in front of Ragna suddenly had a wide hole punched in it; he dashed through immediately and performed another low-flying Inferno Divider to break through even further.

On the left side of the front, Kan'u dodged and weaved between sword slashes and spear thrusts aimed at her head, neck, and chest. With every step, she spun her halberd and cut another Turban down, and never once did she slow down, nor did she trip or stumble.

"I commend you men for stepping forward instead of running," she shouted. A Turban attempted to ambush her, and she jabbed him in the stomach with the butt of the Green Dragon Blade before turning on the spot and beheading him. Without missing a beat, she continued to speak, now surrounded by a group of Turbans that were trying to wait for her to lower her guard. "I am Unchou Kan of Youzhou! I am the first vassal of Lord Ragna of Zhuo, the Messenger of Heaven! If you wish to test my Green Dragon Crescent Blade, then come and see if you can take its blows without being cut in two!"

Several of the more foolish Turbans did just that, raising their weapons high overhead with loud shouts and roars.

They were cut down before they could even realize that they had been killed, and five headless corpses hit the ground with muffled thumps as Kan'u spun her halberd overhead and took her stance once more, then charged at the next Turban with a hellish war cry.

Chou'un, in contrast to both Kan'u and Ragna, was barely moving from her chosen position on the right flank. Her attacks were forceful, precise thrusts of the spear, or the occasional lashing out to drive the Turbans back a step or two; the edges of the spearhead were sharp enough to cut throats and flesh with ease. Whenever the Turbans hesitated, she thrust her spear into them and pulled it back out again in the space of a blink.

Eventually, one of the Turbans shouted, "She's only a woman! How the hell are you bastards losing to some jumped up little bitch!? Rush her! She's been standing in that same goddamn spot!"

The horde roared, and did as they were told, leaving a circle of open space behind them in the wake of their advance. Without pausing, Chou'un tensed her legs, then performed a perfect backwards somersault that took her over all of them. When she landed, it was as if she were a butterfly alighting on a flower; her sleeves swept outward as she bent her legs with the impact, then slowly and carefully rose back up to her full height.

"I stood there because I had no need to move," she said. She smiled indulgently at the Turbans that slowly turned to face her, and before any of them could react, she thrust her spear through one of their throats and pulled it back out again. "But since you felt the need to insult me so personally, let me tell you who exactly this 'jumped up bitch' is." Her spear flashed out again, many times in an instant, and another ten Turbans died. The arrogant smirk on her face was gone now, replaced with pure battle rage. "I am Shiryuu Chou of Changshan. My spear and my soul are one. Your weak, cowardly hearts cannot stand against its power! So come all you like! You will die like the dogs that you are!"

Shouting vile curses, the Turban that yelled at the others charged forward, slashing his large longsword down in a smooth arc. Chou'un simply stepped back, then forward once more and pierced his stomach. She twisted her body to the side, then pulled away, allowing him to fall face first into the dirt and choke on the blood welling up from his throat.

* * *

Behind the vanguard, Chouhi, Shoukatsuryou and Houtou were waiting a few yards back. Chouhi herself was standing just behind Shoukatsuryou and Houtou, who were using telescopes to keep an eye on the entire battlefield. The vanguard where Ragna, Kan'u, and Chou'un were was slowly thinning out, but at a snail's pace that only got slower as time went on. As expected, the open field at their back encouraged the Turbans to stay and slug it out instead of running away.

"It's almost time, Shuri," Houtou said. "If it goes on much longer, the vanguard will make the Turbans pull back. Sound the retreat."

Shoukatsuryou nodded, lowered her telescope, and turned to the head of Chouhi's personal guard, a stocky bald man about forty years old that was standing a few feet in front of her and off to the side. "Captain Tou. The horns, please."

Tou snapped off a salute as he looked down at Shoukatsuryou."You got it." He then faced forward again and bellowed, "Blow the horns, boys! Time to bring those bandits back in!"

Chouhi chuckled and rubbed her hands together, then picked up her Viper Spear from the ground. "All right, Shou, Hou! Stay with me, OK? Real close-like. As long as I'm here, you two are absolutely safe."

"Thank you, Lady Chouhi," Shoukatsuryou replied, bowing. "Though, if it's all right, could you please call me by my true name? We're working together now, right? So I don't want you to feel like you have to be super polite with me."

Chouhi puffed her cheeks out in thought, then nodded. "Shuri, right? I can do that."

Houtou lowered her telescope too, and looked in Chouhi's direction. Chouhi noticed the blush on Houtou's face, and grinned. "You too?"

Houtou nodded with a small sound. "Please."

"Then call me Rinrin," Chouhi said, bouncing the Viper Spear on her shoulder. "Now, come on! We gotta go smash the bad guys up, up, up~"

* * *

Moments later, the air shook with the sound of the war horns, and the vanguard of the Zhuo army began to pull back. Ragna punched down a Turban right as the signal hit his ears, and he immediately turned on his heel and began to sprint back to the camp. The horde of Turbans followed him without pausing, and after a few moments, he found himself alongside Kan'u and Chou'un.

"I saw what you were doing to those Turbans, Chou'un," Ragna said, staring forward as his eyes jumped around to find his unit. "Consider me impressed."

"Thank you, Lord Ragna," Chou'un replied. Though she knew Ragna couldn't see it, she smiled. "Sadly, I didn't get a chance to see much of your swordplay. However, what I did see was rather...interesting. You will have to tell me some stories about your training sometime."

Ragna let out a bark of hard laughter, then shifted to the right as his unit's flag came into view. "This is my stop. Keep up the good work, you two."

With that, he broke away from Kan'u and Chou'un, and the two women immediately turned to the left, toward Kan'u's unit. As they approached, they slowed their pace, and Kan'u spoke up, barely winded from her exertion. "Your skill is truly impressive, Chou'un. I mistook you for a trifling woman, but I see I was mistaken."

"You're very good yourself, Kan'u," Chou'un replied. "I actually admit that I'm looking forward to this part of the plan most. Before, I could only observe you from a distance, but now I'll be able to see up close and personal just how skilled the 'first vassal' really is."

"Lady Kan'u!" one of the soldiers said. "We're all unhurt and accounted for! The men are ready to move as you command!"

"We wait for the next horn before we move around to their rear!" Kan'u replied. "Chou'un and I will lead the charge, so follow our lead! We cannot lose to the likes of them, nor will we!"

* * *

Chouhi's unit, arranged in a reverse arrowhead formation, moved forward with slow, ordered steps, with Chouhi herself in the middle and guarding Shoukatsuryou and Houtou. Ragna, Kan'u, and Chou'un were no longer between the Turbans and Chouhi's unit, while Ragna's unit and Kan'u's unit had both fallen to the sides to allow the Turbans straight through to Chouhi's unit.

As the mob of Turbans drew closer, Chouhi drummed her fingers on the shaft of the Viper Spear, staring forward with unusual intensity. "This is the really important part, right, Shuri?"

"Yes," Shoukatsuryou replied, resisting the urge to bite at her lip. "With the way the formation is now, you'll have to create a pocket that will let the Turbans run to the camp. The way the troops are staggered will make that easier, but then Lord Ragna and Lady Kan'u will need to gradually cut off their rear escape before they realize what's happening and try to bull-rush through."

Chouhi nodded. "Just leave it to us. We've got it."

The clash of weapons at the front line ended their conversation, and Shoukatsuryou quickly pulled out her telescope again. As planned, the Turbans began to make their way forward, stupidly allowing Chouhi's unit to surround them; the moment that they were nearly completely enclosed, Shoukatsuryou shouted, "Rinrin! The horns! Start to keep them pinned down while Lord Ragna and Lady Kan'u circle around!"

"You heard her!" Chouhi roared. "Horns! Now! Then charge in! When you hear them again, move to the side and get them back toward the camp! Let's go, let's go, let's go!"

* * *

Ragna sucked a tooth as the horns sounded over the battlefield again. "Looks like it's about that time." He raised his left hand and his voice. "Start moving in behind the Turbans! Make sure that there are no gaps to let them head back west! It's the home stretch now. All we have to do is make one more push! When we've cut them off, sound the horns!"

The men roared, and followed him forward. As they moved, Ragna turned his gaze to the Turbans, still engaging Chouhi's unit, and grimaced. _Just a little longer, Rinrin. Just a little more!_

* * *

When Kan'u and Chou'un heard the second horn, they moved forward without a word, and the men of Kan'u's unit followed behind them equally quietly. They could see Ragna's unit already moving in, headed toward the same point that they were going to.

"So we'll meet right in the middle, and the path's already clear for us to hem the Turbans in between us and Chouhi's group," Chou'un said, sounding almost absent-minded as she kept pace with Kan'u. "Those little girls are truly amazing, Kan'u. Their timing has been spot-on so far, and these idiot Turbans haven't managed to adjust in the slightest."

"I agree," Kan'u replied. "Shoukatsuryou and Houtou are very good at what they do. I'd come to expect it considering how their strategy helped us before, but this is another level. As for the Turbans, with their numbers, they probably never thought they had to adapt to our movements." She gripped the Green Dragon Blade with a tight smile. "They'll regret that mistake in hell."

Chou'un nodded, then narrowed her eyes again. They had almost met up with Ragna's unit; they had only about a minute or so left before that happened. "We're almost there, Kan'u! Get ready!"

Kan'u allowed herself a smirk and a look in Chou'un's direction. "I've long been prepared. What about you?"

Chou'un returned both the glance and the smirk. "I've warmed up enough. I think I'll be fine."

* * *

Shoukatsuryou and Houtou had been moved to the rear of Chouhi's unit, protected by a small squad. Shoukatsuryou herself laughed as she saw Ragna, Kan'u, and Chou'un meet up behind the Turban lines with their respective units through her telescope; now the Turbans were completely corralled, and ready to be funneled toward Kousonsan's camp. "Hinari! Have we gotten word from General Kousonsan yet?"

Houtou nodded. "One of the scouts just reported seeing a cavalry on white horses bearing flags named Kouson. They'll be here in about a minute."

Another blast of war horns came from the front part of Chouhi's unit, and Shoukatsuryou blinked in surprise. "Hawawa? I didn't give the order to..."

Houtou smiled shyly and fiddled with her hat. "I sent the message ahead of time. I figured that even if the timing was a little early, it'd just give the vanguard more time to let the Turbans through."

Shoukatsuryou blinked a few times, then hugged Houtou tightly for a few moments, causing the pigtailed strategist to squeak in shock and blush brighter. "Hinari, you're the best."

"Awawa? Th-thank you, Shuri."

After releasing Houtou, Shoukatsuryou turned to one of their guards. "Let's start moving the troops," she said, smiling confidently as she adjusted her beret. "It's time for the final strike!"

* * *

By the time the third horn sounded, the Turbans, put simply, were confused down to the last man. They'd started the engagement knowing full well that they had more men than Ragna, Kan'u, and Chou'un, and yet those three alone had cut down waves upon waves of them. Then, to add insult to injury, they'd brought in reinforcements to further harass them, and pare down their numbers even more.

By the time the third horn sounded, the fighting had been going on for well over two hours, and the Turbans were exhausted in addition to being completely outmaneuvered. They still had the numbers advantage, but it seemed to be shrinking bit by bit; they seemed to lose twenty, thirty, forty, or fifty men for every Zhuo soldier that they cut down. Their numbers advantage was slowly waning, even if they refused to acknowledge it.

By the time the third horn sounded, the Turbans had realized that they had to cut their losses, and run away as quickly as they could. However, they'd been cut off from the west, and were boxed in on on the north and the south. Their only escape was east, where the reinforcements had come from; luckily for them, the front there had been broken through not long after the third horn, and so they rushed like madmen to escape through there; Kousonsan had not fielded any soldiers that they knew of, and so they thought that they might be able to escape into Qiao or Hebei if they moved quickly enough to escape the Zhuo army.

However, by the time the third horn sounded, Kousonsan's cavalry was already surging forward to meet the Turbans when they came out of that three-way entrapment, ready and willing to push them back into it.

The first Turban to realize this was at the forefront of the retreat, moving as quickly as he could, when he saw a red-haired woman in pink clothes and white armor. She carried a sword and was racing at him on a horse.

Behind that woman were a dozen more horses, each with a lancer in glittering white uniform.

Behind those dozen horses was an army dressed in the same white uniforms, wielding swords, spears, and axes.

That first Turban quickly turned to the others behind him, who too were seeing what he saw, and yelled, "It's a trap! It's a trap! Run!"

Shortly after that, the woman on the white horse rode past him and chopped his head off with a single stroke of the sword, then trampled his fellows under the feet of her horse.

Those that followed in her wake did the same, as Kousonsan's White Horse Brigade charged in and forced the Turbans back into the enclosure of the Zhuo army.

In the next thirty minutes, the 25,000-man Turban force was completely exterminated with no further casualties for Zhuo or Kousonsan.

* * *

After an accounting of the wounded and the dead, Kousonsan walked with Chou'un, Ragna, his horse, and his group back to the eastern entrance of the camp. The Zhuo forces overall lost another 150 men—half fatally injured, half simply wounded—but compared to the near total extinction of the Turban forces, that was still within the range of what might be called an acceptable loss. The atmosphere was somewhat mixed; there was a clear gloom over the lives lost on the Zhuo and Ryousei sides of the conflict, but a victory was a victory, and the Turbans had been dealt a severe blow.

Though she still looked tired and a bit haggard, Kousonsan's smile was genuinely warm as she clasped Ragna's hand and shook it. "You're a good fighter. I understand where all the fuss about you came from now."

"I just do like I was taught," Ragna said as Kousonsan let his hand go. "No big deal. And besides, it's not like I did all the work either." He jerked a thumb at Chou'un, then to his vassals. "They all pulled their weight and more. If it wasn't for them we'd have been fucked." A wry grin crossed his face. "You cut it a little close near the end though, Kousonsan. Couldn't see you from back where I was, so I was thinking that the Turbans actually broke the line instead of being sucked into the trap."

Kousonsan allowed herself a wry chuckle. "We've spilled blood together on the same battlefield, Ragna. Please, call me Hakukei—my given name. And if you seriously thought I'd let that rabble beat me again, you're mistaken." She turned to Chou'un next, and shockingly enough, retained her cheerful expression. "I didn't tell you this before, Shiryuu, but I'm grateful for all the help you gave me up until now. Thank you for sticking it out with me."

"As I said, it was an honor to fight with you, Hakukei," Chou'un replied, returning the smile. She then turned to Ragna and the others. "And it was an honor to fight with you all, as well. I've spent quite some time traveling, looking for the people with the right ambition for me to fight alongside. You all are very close to that ideal, much closer than Sousou or Sonken, but...I want to see more. I feel like a great change is coming to China soon, and there's so much more I could learn to prepare for it."

Ragna scoffed and scratched his head. "Well, you're welcome in Xizang whenever. But I'm not into that ambition shit like Sousou and Sonken. I'm just watching over the people I'm in charge of, and that's it. They wanna conquer the continent or whatever, the most I'm gonna do is keep them out of my yard, so to speak." The flippancy in his tone of voice faded. "And I know they'll try. I'm expecting them to if they're serious about conquering China. But if they do get us, it won't be without a bloody fight."

Chou'un's eyes widened in that particular curious way, and then she smiled, a full, honest one that took Ragna by surprise. "And that's why I think you are probably the only other person on this continent that could match either of them. You've got the same kind of willpower they do. Your focus is just different." She shook her head. "And that's fine. I don't think I'd mind seeing where that takes you in the end. But I don't think I'm ready to find out yet."

"It's all you, Chou'un," Ragna said. "You're fine by me if you want to come and work with us later. Just stop on by. Try not to get beat up out there."

Kan'u nodded. "Yes. Please, be well, Chou'un. I would enjoy the chance to fight alongside you again."

Chou'un's smile grew a little more. "As would I, Kan'u. Until then...I'll be going."

She bowed to everyone present, then turned and walked off, waving with her left hand while carrying her spear in her right. Everyone watched her go, and once she was far enough away, Kousonsan turned to Ragna once again. "I'll send a messenger to Zhuo once I've settled in at home. I think it's in our best interests if we stay in touch. If something like this happens again, we should be in regular communication."

"Sure. Looking forward to it, Hakukei," Ragna said. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I wanna get back to Xizang before it gets dark as shit out here and we all wind up tripping and breaking our necks on rocks."

Kousonsan laughed again. "True. And my trip's longer than yours, plus I still have to take down this camp." She sighed and shrugged, but kept smiling, too. "God speed, Ragna. Take care."

Ragna nodded, then mounted his horse. "Zhao! We're moving out. Let's go!"

Kan'u, Chouhi, Shoukatsuryou, Houtou, and Ryuubi all bowed to Kousonsan, then followed behind Ragna's horse as he trotted away.

"By the way," Kousonsan shouted after him, "the quartermaster told me you didn't name that horse! It's bad luck to keep riding a horse if you don't name it!"

Ragna shouted his reply without turning around. "Shit if I know what to name it! I'll think of something later!"

* * *

_Bonds are forged strongest in the furnace of war. Even two bitter enemies can gain respect for each other when they are forced to fight back-to-back, and two strangers can be united around the common cause of fighting to survive._

* * *

_Proverb 3: Bonds Are Forged Strongest In The Furnace Of War_

* * *

**Bonus Story: A Reckoning of the Education of Lord Ragna in the Art of Horseback Riding (from the text "A History of the Shoku Kingdom")**

**Zhuo district, Youzhou province, Xizang**

**One month after the prophesied arrival of the Messenger of Heaven**

During the era of the Three Kingdoms, short as it was, Lord Ragna of Shoku was renowned for his prowess in battling both on foot and on horseback. The sight of his black stallion Cerberus often sent his enemies into flights of panic and fear, often causing them to scatter before he could reach them.

However, an anecdotal story from the earliest days of Lord Ragna's rule in Zhuo maintains that this skill was not easily earned—to a rather extreme degree. Lady Chouhi recounts the story as such:

"_Ragna didn't really want to learn how to ride a horse in the first place. Aisha basically had to browbeat him into doing it, even though at the time we didn't have very many horses to begin with—we didn't get a proper cavalry going until after we captured Nanpi, but that was months away. At any rate, Aisha kept telling him that he had to learn, because there were times where he'd have to fight a mounted enemy and that doing so on foot would be suicidal. _

_So eventually, Ragna gave in, and the next day they're out in the courtyard with one of the only horses we've got. I think its name was Stamper. The horse looked completely fine—it might have been about as big as Cerberus was, and it was pretty nice looking. But all of that was just a mask. Stamper was secretly the most ornery bastard in all of Youzhou. And Aisha knew it, too, because aside from when she had to help Ragna onto the damn thing in the first place (and I can tell you she enjoyed that, she was blushing and everything every time she touched his hand), she stood back and let him go._

_Aisha didn't even take two steps back before Stamper bucked Ragna right off. Somehow he managed to not land on his head, but the moment he got back up he pulled Blood-Scythe loose and nearly stabbed Stamper before Aisha pulled him back and begged him not to do it. Eventually Ragna caved, and got back on again. Stamper started bucking, but then Ragna smacked him on the head and shouted 'CUT IT OUT, ASSHOLE' or something like that. _

_Stamper literally froze in its tracks, then up and bolted for the gate, neighing and whinnying like he had been kicked right in the ass. Aisha tried to chase him down, but like I said, he was a healthy horse—and she was on foot. There was no way she was gonna catch him. I didn't go into town to see what happened, but I do know that old Gan was in bed for two weeks straight and that the next day at least half the parents in Xizang showed up to the audience chamber the next day saying that they wanted to kill that horse themselves. Apparently he'd hopped over some kids and broke a couple of stalls in the marketplace, even bucked a cart into a wall. Ragna almost let them, but Aisha swore up and down that it would never happen again._

_It took another week, but eventually Aisha got Ragna to ride Stamper again. And wouldn't you know it—when he got on, Stamper started to go crazy again. He didn't go running off into town again, but Ragna went flying every which way every time he got on. I don't know how she did it, but Aisha somehow kept talking Ragna into getting back on every single time. Eventually, it got to the point where Ragna was basically too stubborn for even Stamper to stop, so he quit trying to fight Ragna and let him ride. _

_Once he could ride Stamper right, Ragna told Aisha to her face that he was never going to ride something that damn stubborn and obnoxious ever again. But the thing is that after a while—maybe two or three months—Ragna kind of had to intimidate Stamper just to get a chance to ride. It became such an ingrained reflex that after that, most horses didn't even think twice about trying to give him any trouble. It's like he puts out some kind of aura that makes them respect him. If Cerberus had been one of those kinds of jerk horses, then Ragna probably would've scared him into submission. But I guess since Cerberus was actually pretty mellow for a Turban horse, he didn't get the stink eye from Ragna."_

* * *

_Late because of issues getting the scene flow together. My apologies. However, it turned out very differently from what I've written before, and it was rather interesting (if time-consuming) to do multiple cuts around the same scene and same timing. _

_Just to address a review for chapter 2: no, I do not intend to have Ragna suddenly pull a Kazuto and get every woman in his bed by the end of the story. This story is billed at least partially as a romance, but it's probably closer to a sub-plot than anything else; in particular, I want to try and look at it from an angle that will give Ragna some character depth, because the first three chapters have kind of hinted at how he feels about his 'old life' without really discussing it._

_Something I'm going to keep playing with in terms of the extra stories is deciding how they are framed. I definitely like the idea of them coming out of a history book, but even within that framework there's some room for play. This chapter's, for instance, had an anecdote from a much older Chouhi on an event that happened not too long after Ragna showed up in China. You may see some characters from Shoku talking here before they're introduced in the narrative proper, but I'll be avoiding casual spoilers as best as I can. _

_Next chapter is probably going to be an interlude, serving as the bridge between this arc and the Anti-Toutaku Alliance arc. It'll be a little shorter, but it should be a good chance to set some things up. As such, it doesn't have a "proverb" as the chapter title. If I get it finished as quickly as I'd like, I'll probably take the extra time to get Proverb 4 ready._

_Anyway, that's it for me. I'll see you guys in a week or so. Take care._

_~ZS_


	4. Interlude 1

**Zhuo district, Youzhou province, Xizang**

**Four months and two weeks after the prophesied arrival of the Messenger of Heaven**

It was a beautiful day in Xizang, one that had become the norm ever since its leader had returned from the battle that led to the death of 35,000 Yellow Turban rebels. In that short time, many more districts and villages within Youzhou had sent emissaries to Xizang, bringing deals of alliance and treaties with them. Sometimes the messengers were proud and formal, and other times they were desperate, but regardless of whether they hid their intentions well or not, the message was always clear: _we trust you to be the one that can protect us all, so please let us join you._

Ragna didn't really have a problem with that insofar as accepting them was concerned.

He did, however, have a problem with all of the "tedious shit" (in his own words) that went hand-in-hand with accepting them.

Right now, said "tedious shit" was made manifest in two things—several short stacks of paperwork sitting on his desk, and Shoukatsuryou and Houtou sitting on the other side of the desk, looking at him expectantly.

"You're kidding me," Ragna muttered. "All of this is for three measly treaties? Can't we just say 'Welcome to the alliance, pay your taxes on time and send us your soldiers when we ask you for them and we'll treat you good'? That's all it boils down to, anyway!"

Shoukatsuryou sighed. She could honestly not fault Ragna for being so annoyed with the amount of work that he had to do, as she had been handling a similar workload to accommodate the restarted flow of new immigrants to Xizang. Trying to find ways to manage the treasury and expand the city without stressing the infrastructure was difficult, to put it mildly, and it had kept her and Houtou up several nights in a row.

As young as they were, it was still exhausting to pull five separate 24-hour work sessions over the last two weeks.

"Lord Ragna, proper records must be kept in order to ensure that the Imperial Court does not find fault with us should they send a messenger to inspect our records," Shoukatsuryou said, trying not to let her frustration with Ragna's petulance show. "They do have the liberty to do so, and at the rate we're being approached by other cities and provinces, I wouldn't be surprised if it happens sooner instead of later."

"Yeah, but why am I the one doing this when I'm not even literate yet?" Ragna asked. He rubbed his eyes as he tried to make sense of the print on the papers in front of him. "I know that you two have better things to do than help me sit and read through all of this tedious shit. If it wasn't a three-man job, I wouldn't give a crap about doing it."

Houtou shook her head. "We've caught up with all of our work, Lord Ragna. And these treaties are important." Her voice was firm, despite how softly she spoke. "If we have to sit here the whole night with you to get them done, then we will."

Ragna did his best to match the uncharacteristically tense stare that Houtou was giving him from under the brim of her hat (made more impressive by the way her eyelids were half-open and how the bags sat beneath her eyes), but on the inside he could feel himself withering under its intense pressure. "I'm not gonna sit here and make you do that. _Either_ of you. If it means that damn much for you all to make sure I get this done, I'll make sure it gets done, but we're going to take breaks like normal people. It ain't the end of the world if takes a few days."

Shoukatsuryou shook her head, but there was a slight hint of frustration in her voice as she continued. "We're not worried about that, Lord Ragna. We're worried about what Aisha said about your habit of sneaking off when no one's watching you do your work."

Ragna slapped his face with one hand and rubbed his eyes. "That's only because _she doesn't let me take a damn break. _I don't have the stamina to sit and pore over shit for hours at a time like she does when she gets in the zone."

"She already told us about the time when you got one of the servants to slip something into her tea so you could sneak out while she fell asleep," Shoukatsuryou replied flatly. "She also told us how by the time she woke up, you'd been gone for at least four hours." She finally let herself sigh in clear annoyance. "Lord Ragna, we've been over this. You have to try to actually take your duty seriously when you're not fighting on the battlefield! People look up to you. People respect you. Yet you have no compunctions swearing and dodging work if the mood strikes you to. If you don't act like you should in your position, what reason will anyone have to obey you?"

Now the conversation was going on a track that Ragna had ridden many times before. Shoukatsuryou would continue to go on about his duties as the ruler of Zhuo and he would continue to argue that he was fine doing things his own way. They hadn't had it erupt into a real argument before, as Shoukatsuryou had always taken pains to be polite, but her lack of sleep was likely to make her much looser with what she had to say to him, and he could tell from the way her weary eyes were starting to tighten. "I hear you, Shuri. I do." He sighed. "But I was grown rough. Heaven ain't exactly the paradise you think it is."

Shoukatsuryou's irritation immediately faded, overridden by her scholar's curiosity. "Oh? What do you mean by that, Lord Ragna?"

Ragna realized what he had done only after he had done it, but the fact of the matter was that it was too late to get around it now. _Fucking lovely, Ragna. Plenty of time to scar the innocent girls with stories of your gruesome, righteous campaign against the NOL. This is probably the best damn plan you've come up with since you decided to go to Kagutsuchi in the first place. _ "Tell you what. If you agree to let me take a break every hour or so, I'll tell you a little bit. All right?"

Shoukatsuryou nodded eagerly, as did Houtou, but much more slowly. Ragna let out a quiet sigh, and shook his head, running a hand through his mop of white hair. "Then let's get this started."

* * *

**Elsewhere...**

The beautiful day did not grace only Xizang, but also the open road. Travelers all over China were walking under a beautiful blue sky with a slight, tranquil wind at their backs, and birdsong echoed throughout the forests and the plains. It was all very idyllic, but despite that, Gentoku Ryuubi felt nothing but unease as she walked down the dirt road that led to her old village with Kan'u and Chouhi flanking her, with their respective weapons in hand and packs on their backs. On both sides of the road, there were a number of rice paddies, filled with men of all ages picking the rice with bended back and crinkled brow.

It had been quite some time since Ryuubi had left, and she had become a radically different person in some respects. When she had finally arrived in Xizang with the Zhuo army and told Ragna her story, he had given her a post in the palace serving under old Gan instead of allowing her to find work in town. Since then, she'd worn the outfit she wore now—an outfit similar to Kan'u's, albeit with a red skirt underneath the much shorter green vest, white thigh-high boots, and a pink ribbon instead of a tie. Additionally, her hair had been tied into two small buns, one on each side of her head and each trimmed with a pair of white feathers—one in the front, one in the back.

Though her overall bearing and gait had not changed, Ryuubi now looked the part of Chuuzan Seiou's descendant, even if she didn't quite believe that she was. That, more than anything, would be the biggest wedge between her and the people that she had grown up calling neighbors, and Ryuubi truly wished from the bottom of her heart that that wouldn't happen. Even if this was the last time she ever returned to this village, she wanted to remember it fondly, and not with sadness.

Kan'u's expression was relaxed and calm as they approached the village gate, while Chouhi's bare feet padded along the dirt road without pausing. Ryuubi glanced at both of them with a small smile, and her nervousness disappeared for a few moments. _It's been so good to travel with Lady Kan'u and Lady Chouhi. It's been pretty pleasant so far, but now... _She looked around again, and bit back a sigh. _I feel ashamed to be back here._

Once they stepped into the village, Ryuubi looked around with an air of feigned casualness. The village proper was surrounded by a few trees toward the back, where the woods grew denser toward the direction of a mountain in the distance. Most of the buildings were made of wood, but they were nothing at all like Xizang's buildings; they were distinctly simple huts or stalls. A number of the villagers stopped to look in their direction, and Ryuubi could tell that a few of them were looking directly at her and whispering to each other. Their eyes burned on Ryuubi's back, and she quickly turned toward the mountain. There was a house in particular that was butting up against the forest line, but it didn't look particularly remarkable; it was this house that Ryuubi gestured to with a slight pointing of the hand. "Follow me, Lady Kan'u, Lady Chouhi. The landlord's place is over this way."

Kan'u and Chouhi nodded, then fell into step behind Ryuubi. The whispers increased in volume, and none of the villagers addressed Ryuubi directly or looked in her direction when she looked in theirs. The reception was so cold that even in the sunlight it made her shiver a bit. What exactly had she done to merit such behavior? She couldn't recall leaving on bad terms with anyone. She looked down at her clothes and wondered if perhaps she had overdressed, or if Kan'u and Chouhi's weapons were attracting more attention than she'd thought they would.

Kan'u's expression grew more tense as they arrived at the landlord's hut. "Something is wrong here, Gentoku. Everyone was staring and gossiping like a gaggle of hens. What's the matter with these folk?"

"I don't know, Lady Kan'u," Ryuubi replied. "They might be uncomfortable with our clothing. I'm not quite certain."

Chouhi shook her head with a petulant frown on her face. "They're looking at you, Gen. And they don't look happy, either. Something is weird here. I don't like it."

Ryuubi didn't reply to that, but instead took the last few steps to the landlord's door and knocked briskly. After a few moments, a fairly tall woman with graying black hair opened the door and looked down a little bit at Ryuubi, then arched a rough eyebrow and smirked nastily in a way that Kan'u and Chouhi did not like. "Well, well, if it isn't Gentoku Ryuu. Never thought I'd see you here again, brat. You look awfully fancy in those clothes of yours. Found a man to take you to bed?"

Ryuubi's face flushed red, but she could not manage to display the anger she felt, only the embarrassment at the bold statement. Kan'u, however, had no such compunctions, and stepped forward, standing shoulder-to-shoulder with Ryuubi. "You are Gentoku's old landlady, correct? I am Unchou Kan'u of Youzhou, and one of Gentoku's superiors at the palace. We came here to speak to you regarding the Ryuu family home and any possessions that were still in it when you evicted Gentoku."

The landlord's smirk widened. "Yes, I am Yuiren Lo. And to be honest I'm a little shocked. Kan'u of Youzhou visiting our humble village? That jumped-up Messenger of Heaven must have quite a bit of free time if he can send a general on a pointless trip to escort a royal concubine."

Chouhi tensed, and her Viper Spear clanked in her hand. Before she could speak, Kan'u put a hand up. "Ma'am, there's no need for all of that," Kan'u replied. Her voice was pleasant, but the expression on her face was harder than a diamond. "However, I would like to give you this warning. If you insult my lord again, the results will not be pretty for you personally. This conversation is not about me or about him—it's about the Ryuu family. Now, I'll say it again. We're here to see about any of the family belongings that you still have for them."

The hidden threat in Kan'u's voice made Lo capitulate slightly; she stopped smirking so broadly and actually looked at them with a more civil expression. "I may have a few. However, when Ryuubi decided to skip town instead of paying the rent, she gave up all her rights to them. Discussion over."

For the first time since the conversation started, Ryuubi spoke, or rather, shouted. "I did not skip town! You came to my door one week early with Shang and Shen, and literally told me that if I didn't get out, they would pick me up and throw me out! How dare you accuse me of trying to...trying to...!"

The other villagers looked at her more directly now that they'd heard her outburst, which carried pretty far. Kan'u blinked, shocked at how loudly Ryuubi had spoken and how her brow was furrowed and her blue eyes narrowed in unshakable rage. Even Chouhi's tense glare lightened somewhat out of the sheer novelty of this expression from Ryuubi.

Lo shrugged, and leaned against the door frame. She spared a glance over Ryuubi's head to see that the villagers were crowding around her house in a wide semi-circle. That was more than fine with her; the girl would likely embarrass herself soon enough, and if she did it in front of an audience, that was all the better. "So you say, so you say. Regardless, what I said still stands. Those things aren't yours or your family's anymore. They're mine now. You're simply out of luck."

Ryuubi's righteous anger, had she been the Ryuubi of two weeks ago, might have crumbled at that. But she had seen firm leadership and firmer self-reliance in that intervening time, short as it was. She had seen Kan'u, Shoukatsuryou, Houtou and Ragna debate fiercely about policy without one shrinking away from the other. She had seen old Gan call Ragna a fool to his face, then get complimented by Ragna for doing so. She had seen all of them staying up till all hours of the night to get work done, and was often the only one that was awake enough to help them get to bed. Compared to all of those people—compared to all the work they did, all the sacrifices they made, all of the things they did for other people—Lo was no one special.

Though she was assured of what she wanted to do next, Ryuubi still took a moment to look around at the crowd that had gathered around them. Their faces were stern, hostile, confused, concerned, and she knew why; clearly, Lo's version of events had become the accepted truth of Ryuubi's departure, and now Ryuubi was the one set up to be the villain by coming back here to demand what should be rightfully hers after leaving in such a "cowardly" way.

When Ryuubi spoke again, the anger in her voice was more controlled, but there was a quiet, understated authority to it. As she looked her landlord in the eye, the angry red burn on her cheeks gradually faded. "Yuiren Lo. I will never deny that I did fail to hold up the commitment to pay back on the rented land. I will never claim that I should have kept my home in light of that failing; a contract is a contract, and must be honored one way or another. I am not here to dispute that." Her voice rose. "Those things I left behind are all I have left of my family that I can rightfully claim. I am not here to challenge your claim on that land. I am here simply to ask for what is left of the Ryuu family legacy. Even if the home and the land are not mine, those items are."

She then did the last thing that anyone would have expected, and slowly got on hands and knees, bowing her head. Kan'u and Chouhi gasped aloud, while Lo flinched. The villagers began to murmur and whisper even more, but Ryuubi did not raise her head to look at them and did not make the slightest sign of standing back up. "Please. Just allow me to take whatever was left behind. That's all I want."

After that, the only sounds in the air were the whispers of the villagers around the hut. Lo looked at them, then Kan'u and Chouhi, then down at Ryuubi. They all met her eyes without responding to her, but their furrowed brows and harsh frowns spoke clearly for them.

It was at last Kan'u that broke the silence. "Well? What is your answer?"

Lo's face pinched inward as she closed her eyes and frowned. "Damn it, fine. I already got rid of her clothes, but there were some papers and jewelry that I held on to. That's all there is. I'll get it for you. After that, could you try to stay away for more than a couple of weeks before you come crawling back with your tail between your legs like a dog? Have some pride."

Chouhi's eyes flashed as she stared up at Lo. "Say that again about Gen! I dare you! You're the one that kicked her out of her house—"

"That's enough, Lady Chouhi," Ryuubi said. Her voice was still velvety soft as she stood back up and bowed her head toward Lo. "Thank you, Lo. I appreciate it."

Lo let her mouth relax, and for the first time Ryuubi saw the deep, tired lines in the landlord's face and the way her gray eyes were dull and almost unseeing. It was as if the woman had aged five years since last they had met. "You're welcome," she muttered, turning away. "Wait here. I'll be right back."

The moment the woman was out of earshot, Kan'u gave a displeased sigh and turned to Ryuubi. "You have the patience of a saint, Gentoku." Her frown softened. "I'm sorry. You shouldn't have needed to do that. How disgusting that she would make you grovel for what should have been yours in the first place."

Ryuubi shook her head. "Being prideful would have just made things harder, Lady Kan'u. In the grand scheme of things, we're getting what we came here for, and that's enough."

"Aisha," Kan'u replied. Ryuubi blinked, then blushed as she realized what Kan'u was trying to say. "You've been standing on ceremony with me for a while now, and I've been addressing you by your given name since you helped me with the wounded at Kousonsan's camp. I think that as friends we should address each other more casually."

Chouhi nodded. "If Aisha is OK with it, then I am too. Call me Rinrin from now on, OK, Gen?"

For a moment, Ryuubi's mouth did little more than open and shut wordlessly. Eventually, she found her voice again, no longer looking like the somber young woman that had prostrated herself before a belligerent landlord. "I'm all right with that...a-as long as you call me Touka." She looked Kan'u in the eye, then Chouhi, smiling beautifully. "You're right...Aisha, Rinrin. We're friends. We should address each other like friends."

Kan'u returned the smile and placed her free hand on Ryuubi's shoulder, squeezing gently, while Chouhi grinned and propped her Viper Spear against her shoulder. "That's the spirit."

* * *

**An hour later, in Xizang**

Ragna grunted and leaned back in his chair, closing his burning eyes with a grunt and several muttered curses. Put simply, the paperwork had been, as expected, extremely boring and extremely frustrating, but somehow he was the only one that was actually fatigued by it; Shoukatsuryou and Houtou, despite their own poorly-hidden exhaustion, were still making steady progress.

"It's been an hour, girls," he said aloud, gradually allowing himself to sit forward again. "You wanna take a break and listen to me tell some stories or what?"

Shoukatsuryou immediately put down the sheaf of papers she had in her hand and yawned a little bit, then shook her head and nodded. Her smile lit up her face, and Ragna was again reminded of Saya so much that his heart almost began to hurt. "Of course, Lord Ragna!"

Houtou's response was quieter, as all she did was put down her papers and look up at Ragna, but her eyes seemed to twinkle in anticipation as she blushed.

Ragna sighed, then ran a hand through his hair and put his elbows onto his desk, hiding his mouth behind clasped hands. _Better skip all the shit about Ars Magus and Armaguses for now. That'll just confuse the hell out of them. _"I guess I'll explain what I mentioned earlier, then. You see, back in...Heaven, we had a problem with a monster called the Black Beast. It just sprung up out of nowhere one day and started to just destroy everything it saw."

Shoukatsuryou and Houtou's bright expressions dimmed visibly, and Ragna winced. Houtou asked, in a small, trembling voice, "Did you ever see it yourself? This Black Beast?"

"Way before my time, a hundred years or so ago," Ragna replied. "I know a couple people that might remember, but I'm only on actual speaking terms with one of 'em, my master Jubei. He doesn't—didn't—like to talk about it."

"A monster that destroyed Heaven a hundred years ago, and people who still remember that calamity..." Shoukatsuryou whispered. She seemed as if she wanted to cry. "It sounds like a fairy tale. But it really happened, didn't it, Lord Ragna?"

Ragna nodded, and ran a hand through his hair with a sigh. "Yeah. I haven't been able to see any of the places that it wrecked, but going by what my master Jubei told me, things were really bad. It blew up every major city and country it came across until it just up and stopped for one year. Because of that break, six people—the Six Heroes, which included Master Jubei—stood up and helped us get ready to fight the Beast when it woke back up. The preparations worked, and we beat the Beast, but by then we were basically all fucked, because the Beast had put so much seithr in the air that we had to build a bunch of cities in the mountains and the highlands to keep it from poisoning us."

Shoukatsuryou cocked her head as her expression went from sadness to confusion. "What's...seithr?"

Ragna waved his right hand around in the air a few times. It seemed like an idle action, but mentioning seithr made him think of his arm. "It's an odorless invisible...gas, I think. It's like the air around you, but when you breathe in a lot of it, it's really bad for your body. But, yeah, like I was saying, the Beast just put that shit all over the place. Eventually we were able to start using it as...fuel, I guess you could say, for things like..." He let out another sigh. This was going to sound ridiculous, but it was the only example he could think of. "...moving flying boats, or really big plows, or stuff like that."

Houtou gasped slightly and stared at Ragna like she'd been starstruck. "They have flying ships in Heaven?"

Shoukatsuryou was giving him the stink-eye, but Ragna nodded anyway, knowing that he sounded like a complete moron. "Yeah. Otherwise you have to walk through the highlands or even the lowlands, and there's lots of seithr there. Most people would get sick in a couple of hours and probably die not long after that. I've done it a few times, and it really sucks."

"But why couldn't you use any of the flying ships?" Houtou asked. "If that's the safe way to do it, why would you even bother walking through the mountains? And why didn't you get sick from the seithr?"

_Of course you'd ask that, _Ragna thought, stifling a curse. "Well, as far as seithr goes, I have a naturally high tolerance for it, so as long as I was careful in the mountains, I was fine. As far as why I didn't use ships, I...kind of had a bad reputation around a lot of the cities. Did some shit that didn't exactly pass muster with the Library. If I'd tried to get on a ship I would have had soldiers hunting me down really quick."

This time, both Shoukatsuryou and Houtou gave him identical confused looks. "The Library?"

Ragna fell quiet for a few moments. When he started talking again, his face darkened, and for a moment Shoukatsuryou and Houtou recognized the narrow-eyed scowl as the face he put on when he was in the middle of a fight, but it was clearly more intense than normal. "They're like the Imperial Court here. Their real name is the Novis Orbis Librarium, but normal people call it the NOL or the Library for short. After the Black Beast was killed, the Library was formed from the twelve families that helped the Six Heroes save the world, and took over running things." As he continued speaking, Ragna's eyes became slightly unfocused, as if he were staring hatefully at something beyond the castle walls. "They crossed a line with me and were getting up to some really terrible shit before I came here. I wasn't about to let them do whatever the hell they wanted, so...I paid them back a little bit."

The dark tone in his voice was enough to make the room feel uncomfortably cold despite the sunlight coming in and bouncing off of the walls. Both Shoukatsuryou and Houtou drew back slightly from Ragna as his white eyebrows drew closer together and his gloves creaked ominously; his hands were clenched so tightly that the knuckles were about to pop. Then, as if he was waking up from a dream, Ragna blinked once or twice, and actually refocused his eyes on the girls and not the wall behind them.

"Sorry," he said. Somehow, his voice sounded flatter, less lively than it normally did. He reached out to the papers he'd been looking over before the break. "I think that's enough for now. I kind of killed the mood."

"No, Lord Ragna, it's alright," Shoukatsuryou said softly. _If it hurt you that badly, I want to know what they did. _"Please, continue."

Ragna lifted his head up from analyzing the papers and looked directly at Shoukatsuryou. His eyes narrowed just a little bit, and the corners of his mouth pulled downward even more. "Shuri. Drop it."

Shoukatsuryou felt her lip tremble a little bit, but she didn't have it in her to press him again. Houtou had lowered her head and didn't appear to be paying attention at all. "Very well, Lord Ragna," she replied. "Let me know when you've finished with that set of trade agreements."

Ragna nodded, then directed his attention down to the papers again. Houtou looked over to Shoukatsuryou, and saw that the young blonde's eyes were watering as if she wanted to cry. Quietly, she reached out and rubbed the back of Shoukatsuryou's hand gently; when Shoukatsuryou looked up at Houtou, she saw that Houtou was smiling very softly. Despite how she felt at the moment, Shoukatsuryou returned the smile and the nod, then turned her attention back to the papers that she'd put down.

_For now, I'll just leave it alone, _Shoukatsuryou thought, grabbing the papers and shuffling them against her thigh._ But someday...I hope Lord Ragna will explain it. _She recalled the dark, hateful look on his face after he'd mentioned that "Novus Orbus Librarium" and "paying them back", and studied his stern face intently as he muttered something under his breath and rubbed at his eyes.

_What did they do to him that gives him a reason to hate them so much?_

* * *

_End Interlude 1_

* * *

_And here's the interlude for you all. I was initially thinking about throwing in a scene with Sousou and Sonken, but I decided that those would fit better in the next chapter. _

_Also, because this is an interlude, there is no side-story to accompany it. It mostly serves as a way to clean up loose threads from the Yellow Turban Rebellion arc._

_It seems that my statement from last time regarding the harem got a little muddied, so let me try to clarify it. There may be more than one person that eventually expresses a romantic interest in Ragna, but anyone expecting nothing but shenanigans as they all try to capture his heart should probably prepare to be disappointed, in particular because Ragna is not quite in the place to start playing at being the king of romance and master of his domain. **In the future, you probably won't want to ask too many questions about "who is in the harem" or "who will Ragna get", because I haven't quite figured out how I'm going to attack it aside from a very bare-bones idea.**_

_Anyway, that's all there is for me today. I was watching a little bit of Evolution 2013 earlier today so my brain is a little fried. I'll see you all next Sunday with Proverb 4: "An Honorable Rival Is Better Than A Deceitful Ally"._

_~ZS_


	5. Proverb 4

_Her red eye, set in a pale face, stared at Ragna from beneath a wild tangle of white hair; the other one was covered by an eyepatch, resembling the red shell of the Azure Grimoire. However, that shell and part of the patch under it was broken, revealing a swirling mass of red and black where there should have been a pupil, an iris, and a sclera._

"_It hurts, Ragna," she whispered. Her voice was disturbingly similar to Noel's, to Saya's, and it made Ragna's skin crawl. However, as much as Ragna tried to pull away from her, he could not move. "But it feels so good. Please, Ragna. Give Nu more. Go deeper."_

_A searing pain spread through his sternum, and when he grunted in pain, she moaned. He finally managed to look away from the sleepy grin on her lips and down at whatever was hurting him so badly, and saw one of her many blue-and-white swords jammed into his chest, as Blood-Scythe was in turn thrust through her abdomen, spilling blood all over her armor._

"_More, Ragna!" Nu shouted, her childlike voice squealing as if she'd been given a piece of candy. "Let's go together, and you can go deeper! Give me more!"_

_Ragna managed to look away from her again, but over her shoulder this time. Around them was darkness, but behind her, he could see a massive hole in the ground and the bright, hellish glow of something unworldly at its base. Without hesitation, he yanked Blood-Scythe back, then raised his knee a little bit past chest level._

_"Go to hell!" he roared, and with a single kick to her wounded stomach, he sent her flying down into the abyss._

* * *

**Zhuo province, Youzhou district, Xizang**

**Six and a half months after the prophesied arrival of the Messenger of Heaven**

As soon as Ragna jerked up out of his sleep, he felt his hand automatically fumbling for Blood-Scythe before he stopped and took a few moments to breathe. The thick curtains of his windows were drawn shut, letting none of the morning light in. This did absolutely nothing to calm him down, and actually made his nervousness even more heightened until he finally remembered where he was and finally remembered that Nu wasn't there, and never would be.

Eventually, he managed to slow his racing heart, but he could feel the blood still pounding in his ears and the incessant itch of his instincts to fight against something. Worse yet, if he closed his eyes, he could see Nu's rapturous grin, and a disgusting shudder rocked him from head to toe as he recalled it.

"Shit."

His voice was breathless and low, and though he wanted to deny it, his hands were shaking as he remembered how revolting it had been to see Saya's face, through Nu, twisted so much. It had already been a good number of years since he had last seen Saya, and the uncanny resemblance that Nu had to her was beginning to poison what few memories of her that he had left.

In a dazed stupor, Ragna shook his head and slowly dragged himself out of bed. There were things to be done today, and they wouldn't get done if he was lying around in bed hallucinating about the psychotic doppelganger of his little sister that had nearly killed him all those months ago.

* * *

When Ragna finally made it out to the dining hall, he started moving toward the grand round table reserved for him and his officers. Kan'u, Chouhi, and Houtou were already there, all looking refreshed and happy as they spoke to each other about something, while the other square tables had a small, scattered number of servants and soldiers scattered around, eating their own meals.. Their conversation paused for only a moment when they heard the heavy falls of Ragna's red, steel-toed boots, and all three of them turned to him with bright smiles (or shy ones, in Houtou's case).

"Good morning, Lord Ragna," Kan'u said. Her cheer faded somewhat as she inspected Ragna's face. There were clear bags under his eyes, and his eyebrows were slightly more scrunched together than normal. "Did you sleep poorly? You seem a little out of sorts."

"Nightmares about goddamn paperwork," he replied flatly, pulling out a chair and all but dropping himself into it. "Mountains of it suffocating me to death while you kept dropping more on me, telling me I had to get it all done."

Five months ago, Kan'u would have spluttered and muttered and been generally incoherent for a while at the bald stupidity of such a statement. However, she'd gotten used to Ragna's blunt, uncouth humor, and simply smiled all the wider. "I think your heart's telling you something your mind isn't willing to admit. I don't believe I need to tell you what that is, do I?"

Ragna snorted and closed his eyes, leaning back in the chair a little bit. Kan'u took that as a tacit admission of defeat on his part, and resumed eating the rice and fish that had been prepared for breakfast that morning with a satisfied smile on her face. However, this didn't go on for too long before Chouhi spoke up (after, of course, she cleaned her place in about ten minutes flat).

"Where's Shuri?"

Ragna cast an eye around the table, and grunted in a tone that the others knew to mean "that's a good question". "She wasn't with you, Hinari?"

Houtou shook her head. She and Shoukatsuryou did share a room, and normally woke up at about the same time. "She wasn't there when I woke up, Lord Ragna. I haven't the slightest idea where..."

That question answered itself when the doors to the dining hall almost burst open as Shoukatsuryou pushed them apart with deceptive strength and rushed to the table. "Lord Ragna! Lord Ragna!"

The urgency in her voice tripped Ragna's "big brother" behavior, and he was up and out of his chair before she was halfway across the hall. He bent down to her level right as she came up to him, and though she might have thought the expression patronizing at any other time, she was not about to protest it now, from the despondent look on her face and the shimmering in her violet eyes. "What's the matter, Shuri?"

Shoukatsuryou's eyebrows were drawn together in sheer distress. "It's Toutaku! She's declared herself as emperor in Luoyang, and overthrown Xie Liu! A messenger came this morning with the news; I'd gotten up early to study and was on my way over here when one of the guards brought him to me..."

Ragna's mind set about absorbing and organizing the information with speed that he did not possess months earlier, putting it into place amongst what he already knew of the situation in the Imperial Capital. Emperor Ling had died shortly after Ryuubi, Kan'u, and Chouhi had returned from their trip, and for some time afterward the capital had fallen into disarray as two factions rose to power. One was comprised of Empress He, her brother Jin He and her son, Prince Bian, while the other was led by Prince Bian's half-brother, Xie Liu, and Emperor Ling's mother, Empress Dong, as well as a number of court eunuchs. Bian had been seated for a while, but Liu's men made moves to assassinate Jin He, and succeeded. They had then called on Toutaku of Bingzhou to help defend them from further retaliation from Prince Bian; however, it was clear that Toutaku wasn't willing to be used like that.

"We'd only heard about Bian being seated two weeks ago," Kan'u said, speaking Ragna's thoughts before he could. "But for Toutaku to just...seize upon this opportunity..." She frowned darkly. "Lord Ragna, we'll have to stay very much alert. Who knows what could happen in Luoyang now?"

Ragna nodded, then gently patted the distressed Shoukatsuryou on the head. He couldn't help but smile slightly at the soft blush on her face, but when the requisite images of Saya came back to him, he firmly put them aside and stood up to face the others. "We'll stay alert, but so far as I'm concerned it ain't our problem unless Toutaku gets it in his head that he wants to try and expand."

Kan'u gave him a sharp glare, but Ragna did not shrink from it, and in fact pulled out the chair next to him so that Shoukatsuryou could sit down in it before he sat in his own and went back to eating, meeting Kan'u's eyes without turning away. With that single expression, he conveyed the utter finality and weight of his last spoken words, and Kan'u eventually broke eye contact, accepting her leader's judgment. However, she did spare a moment to look at Shoukatsuryou, and the younger girl nodded once, albeit very discreetly.

They would listen very intently for further news, and one way or another, Ragna would be persuaded to take action before the new imperial order decided to overreach themselves.

* * *

**Gi kingdom, capital city Xuchou**

**Seven months after the prophesied arrival of the Messenger of Heaven**

Moutoku Sousou, ruler of the Gi kingdom and probably one of the most powerful women in China, was not easily surprised nor intimidated despite her small figure and young appearance. Most of the time, the scandalous stories of the nobility did little to shake her, and oftentimes made her laugh shortly before dealing with the more disruptive elements in Gi very quickly and very personally.

Not even the news that Toutaku had taken over the imperial capital of Luoyang had startled her when she'd first received it a month ago. She had simply accepted the courier's message in her throne room, with her loyal generals Genjou Kakouton, Myousai Kakouen, and Chuukou Kyocho at her side, and dismissed him after he had delivered it.

When pressed by them about how she would respond, Sousou had responded with a careless air and a wave of the hand. "Toutaku may be the hero of the west, but that means nothing to me. If he thinks he's strong enough to crush me, he can certainly try."

In much the same way, news of Toutaku's tyranny in the capital and ruthless suppression of the folk there did little to spark Sousou's interest over the following two weeks. Gi continued to plan its own expansions independent of all those happenings, while Sousou herself lounged around the palace and entertained herself physically and mentally when there was no work to do otherwise.

However, that cool, unperturbed facade shattered to bits on the day that Kakouton came to her and told her that Honsho Enshou, the most stubborn and stupid noble that Sousou had ever had the displeasure of knowing, was approaching the kingdom of Gi with an offer to join an anti-Toutaku alliance. Thankfully for Sousou's reputation, Kakouton had seen fit to come to her private chambers and give the information behind closed doors, so only the general witnessed Sousou's blank, blue-eyed, half-lidded stare.

"You're not serious, are you, Shunran?" Sousou said slowly, closing the book that she'd been reading. She was sitting at a fine wooden desk in a matching chair with red cushioning, only a few feet away from her bed. Kakouton was kneeling down at the door, bowing her head and allowing the tips of her long, slicked-back black hair to hover above the ground; one large strand stood up from the rest, right along her hairline. Birdsong came in through the open window, failing to lower the tension in the atmosphere between the two of them.

"I wish I were joking, Lady Karin," Kakouton replied. "But no, I'm entirely serious." She did not look up to meet Sousou's eyes in part because of just how "bored" the leader of Gi first looked when Kakouton had delivered the message. It may not have seemed a big deal to anyone that didn't know Sousou, but when her expression and tone went flat, she was not at all in a good mood.

Sousou pushed her chair back and stood up, causing her spiral-shaped blonde pigtails and the reddish-pink ribbons that tied them to bounce slightly. Her outfit was relatively simple, as it tended to be when she was around in the palace—a dark skirt with detached sleeves, dark stockings, and boots. "I know that fool wouldn't dare ask me to join an alliance unless there were others she had appealed to. Did you inquire about that, Shunran?"

"Yes, Lady Karin. The messenger stated that similar invitations have been extended to Sonken, Kousonsan, and...the Messenger of Heaven." Kakouton spoke the last name with a venom that she rarely used for anyone, and Sousou smiled. Kakouton was known as one of the best swordswomen in China, but when the Yellow Turban Rebellion swept over Youzhou, rumors of the Messenger of Heaven soon followed, saying that he used a sword more akin to a giant slab of iron—and was more than capable of killing multiple men at a time with one sweeping cut. For all her prowess with a blade, Kakouton couldn't claim that kind of skill, and since then had harbored a grudge against the man without having ever met him. "However, he didn't tell me whether they had accepted the offer or not. It's likely all the messengers left Nanpi at about the same time."

Sousou rubbed her chin, and allowed her smile to turn into a nasty smirk. "I see. If the Messenger of Heaven appears, then there is no doubt that _she_ will, as well. The Green Dragon Blade of Youzhou, the Black-Haired War God Unchou Kan'u...the power of someone like that is beyond essential to my dream. We'll accept."

Kakouton's head snapped up, and her voice raised to a shout. "Lady Karin! Are you absolutely—"

Sousou looked down at Kakouton, and her expression lost all pretense of amusement. "Yes. Send word to Nanpi, either by our messenger or theirs. If nothing else, we shall be in a position to evaluate the overall worth of Luoyang once all is said and done." Then, ever so slowly, the smirk grew wider.  
"If the others accept, we will meet Kan'u and that rather ugly man she's fallen into the company of. Perhaps we may be able to convince her to change her mind about who she should pledge her blade to."

Kakouton lowered her head again. "As you wish, Lady Karin. It will be done."

The position of her head hid the fact that her eyes were burning holes into the ground. Her teeth clenched and ground against each other. _It is Lady Karin's wish. It doesn't matter how I feel. If she truly wants Kan'u, then I will..._

She was pleasantly surprised when Sousou's thin fingers danced on the back of her red sleeveless qipao, between the strands of her hair. Moments later, Sousou herself seemed to press into Kakouton's back, and Kakouton could feel Sousou's chin nestled into the crook of her neck.

"Shunran." Sousou's breath gently tickled her ear. "You're upset, aren't you? Come. Before lunch...why don't we relax a little?"

"Lady Karin..."

"You know me, Shunran," she whispered, pushing further. "I like beautiful things. The devotion that you and the others give to me is beautiful. But, Kan'u is beautiful, too. Too beautiful to stay with that ugly man. You don't need to be jealous. You will always be beautiful to me. So come. Let's go to bed for a little."

Kakouton gave up on fighting the blush that spread across her face, and rose up as soon as Sousou grasped her hand and pulled off of her back. "Y-Yes, Lady Karin."

* * *

**Go kingdom, capital city Namyang **

**Seven months after the prophesied arrival of the Messenger of Heaven**

As the afternoon gradually waned, Chuubou Sonken, the Empress of the Go kingdom, took up her usual position out on the balcony of her room. At this time of day, after getting away from all the people that wanted to talk to her about various favors and requests, she truly appreciated the peace and quiet, and often needed it so that she could concentrate on her work for the evening in addition to her studies.

A gentle gust blew and played with her long pink forelocks of hair; the rest of it was basically just above shoulder-length, and did not move very much. She wore a pink dress with long sleeves and large cuffs just above the elbow, and a high-collared white shirt that covered the top part of her body, down to about the middle of her bosom. She wore no crown, though; that was in her room. She didn't want to be Empress Sonken when there was no one around but her.

The door to her room slid open silently while she stared out at the city of Namyang below her, and from the distinctive rasp of cotton socks against stone, Sonken could tell exactly who it was. "Shishun."

At this address from Sonken, the newcomer, Kouha Kannei, bowed deeply. Both the red tails of the ribbon tying up her hair-bun cover and the black muffler around her neck fluttered as she did so. She was wearing her usual waist-length red shirt with dark sleeves and dark gloves, but her legs were bare, exposing the brown skin to the elements. "Lady Renfa, we received a messenger from Nanpi a few minutes ago. He said that Enshou is formally requesting your assistance in forming an anti-Toutaku alliance."

Sonken did not turn to face Kannei, and instead continued to look out over Namyang. Even in the oncoming evening, the people of the city were still bustling through the streets, and the smell of restaurants beginning to start their evening cooking wafted up to her nose. At length, she replied to Kannei with a quiet weariness that would have fit a woman twenty years her elder. "If that spoiled child expects us to fight against Toutaku with only Go's forces and her own, she's taken me for a fool as well. Deny it. We shall not participate."

"The messenger indicated that invitations had also been sent out to Gi, Ryousei, and Youzhou," Kannei added. "At the very least, Rikuson theorizes that Kousonsan will join in the effort, and that Ragna of Zhuo might be inclined to do so if Kousonsan does. Sousou is the only real wild card."

The mention of Ragna was enough for Sonken to turn and lock her crystal-blue, catlike eyes onto Kannei's violet ones. Kannei herself kept her face perfectly still under Sonken's sudden examination. It was something of an open secret in the Go court that Sonken had been particularly interested to hear about Youzhou's very own Messenger of Heaven, and had followed news of his actions against the Yellow Turbans very closely. Whatever her reasons were, Sonken kept them very much to herself, leading to jests from some of the senior advisers that she'd gotten something of a crush on the mysterious man that had basically taken half of Youzhou province under his protection.

Kannei knew Sonken well enough to be positive that wasn't the case, but was otherwise no less sure of what drew Sonken to collect news of him so quickly. She also knew that now that Ragna's name had entered into the equation, Sonken was highly likely to join the alliance if only to meet him for herself. No doubt it would make Sonken unpopular with at least some parts of the court, but she was a a shining example of the Son family's steadfastness in the face of adversity. And even so, it was likely that Sonken could talk them into accepting her choice of action one way or another; she was not as aggressive as her predecessor, but she was equally persuasive and even charismatic.

As was her wont, though, Kannei waited quietly for Sonken to give her actual verbal decision.

Eventually, Sonken nodded. "We'll join. If you see Ryomou, Lady Kougai, or Lady Shuuyu on your way back to the messenger, let them know of my decision."

"As you wish, Lady Renfa," Kannei said, bowing once more. As she rose, her narrowed eyes and thin black eyebrows relaxed underneath her sharply-cut bangs. "Though if you wish to tell Lady Shuuyu in person, she is probably on her way to visit Lady Sonsaku sometime soon."

Sonken received this information without changing her stern, distant expression, but Kannei could tell that she was slightly discomfited by that knowledge. "I do need to pay a visit to my sister today. Thank you for letting me know, Shishun. You're dismissed."

Kannei nodded her understanding and immediately departed as quietly as she came. Sonken turned back toward the city, and her expression finally changed to a small, if bitter, smile. "Sheren...I wonder, am I a fool?"

* * *

**Youzhou province, Zhuo district, Xizang**

**Seven months after the prophesied arrival of the Messenger of Heaven**

Unlike Sousou and Sonken, Ragna received his messenger personally, as he was just completing a patrol of the city when the messenger approached him on horseback and asked for directions to the palace, saying that he had a message of grave importance for "Lord Ragna of Zhuo". Once Ragna's identity had been made clear, the messenger was brought to the palace and delivered the entire message to Ragna and his officers before being made to wait outside the audience chamber while they deliberated amongst themselves. A large, round table like the ones in the dining hall was set out in the center of the room; Ragna sat at the side that allowed him to look at the door on the far end of the hall, while the others sat opposite him to varying degrees.

To her mild discomfort, Ryuubi was included in these proceedings as well. Her lineage had ultimately been proven to be in good standing not just by the sword that she carried, but also by the fact that the papers that she'd obtained from her landlord had the authentic seal of Chuuzan Seiou on them. As such, she had kept her position as Gan's assistant in daily matters, but by Ragna's order was also called into important meetings like this one, and had been taking private lessons from Shoukatsuryou and Houtou.

It was a mostly unspoken understanding that if things were to somehow go badly at some point, Ryuubi would be the next in line to lead the province.

"We have to go," Kan'u said, clenching a fist. "We absolutely can't allow this. Remember, Lord Ragna, that we were not the only ones hit hard by the Yellow Turbans; there was unrest near the capital as well. These people have broken free of one yoke to be captured under another!"

Chouhi's head was nodding so vigorously it almost looked like a giant red blur. "I agree, big bro!"

In contrast to those two, Shoukatsuryou and Houtou were much more subdued when they spoke their opinions, and for good reason.

"Lord Ragna, I understand Aisha and Rinrin's desire to go and assist the anti-Toutaku alliance," Shoukatsuryou said. "However, we are not in the strongest position of our own at the moment. A lot of our alliances are still very new, and we are not in the position to ask for very much of them."

"There is also the postwar period to consider," Houtou added. "Whether Toutaku's forces win or not, the Imperial Court has collapsed, and the territories will likely break into open war. Go and Gi will be competing for territory for quite some time afterward, and will probably swallow a lot of the smaller territories in the process. If we aren't careful at that time, then..."

Ragna nodded, seeing where Houtou was going. "We'd get caught up in their mess and get eaten up since we don't have the power to push them back in a straight-up fight. So then I'm guessing you two want to hang back and let 'em kick the sh—crap out of Toutaku for us?"

Shoukatsuryou nodded, but the smile on her face was more than a bit stiff. "That would be ideal."

Ryuubi finally found her tongue, and shook her head vigorously. "But what if Sonken or Sousou decides to make their move after the alliance is dissolved? What if they do worse to the people than Toutaku is already doing to them? If we're there then we might be able to stop that if it happens."

Kan'u nodded her agreement, but before she could speak, Ragna held up a hand to silence her. Then, he said, "Shuri. I need you to be honest with me. Is that absolutely what you want?"

Shoukatsuryou bit her lip and looked off to the side, unable to meet Ragna's mismatched stare even though it was less on the angry side and more on the observant side. After a tense silence, she eventually shook her head. "N-no, Lord Ragna. But it's what we should do for the sake of making sure that our territory remains stable in the post-war period. It's important to have a sense of justice, but...we can't help anyone if we overextend ourselves."

Ragna nodded at that, and Kan'u tensed even more, though her expression soon became despondent instead of frustrated when she realized that she was letting her anger show clearly to Ragna when she shouldn't have.

However, what Ragna was doing and what Ragna was thinking went in two completely different directions.

On one hand, he knew that what was happening in Luoyang now was really no different from the way that the Library ran things. It was less personal than his beef with the Library, but it was still something he disliked. Kan'u had said it earlier; Youzhou had not been the only place that suffered thanks to the Turbans, and Ragna had the power and the skill to make the difference here on a level equal to or greater than the change he had tried to make in his one-man war against the Library.

On the other hand, Shoukatsuryou's argument was just as sound, and appealed to the side of him that he had trusted much more often back "home". He remembered what he'd said to Chou'un about lacking the ambition to do what Gi and Go did; all that really mattered to him at the end of the day was that Youzhou was safe for the people of Xizang and the territories that had joined with him. Going to a fight that wasn't really his in the first place would be a denial of that sentiment to some degree, and in all honesty, he did not want to put lives at risk when they could yet be spared.

Ragna took a moment to look at his hands. Pragmatism had not been in Jubei's mind when he'd chosen to train Ragna to fight against the Library. Pragmatism had not been in Kan'u's mind when she and Chouhi led him to Xizang all those months ago. The circumstances in this situation were unmistakably different, but Ragna knew that the spirit of the matter was the same. People needed help, and he could help them, or choose not to.

"We're joining," he said. "I know what I said earlier about not wanting to get into fights that didn't involve us. I know that Shuri and Hinari are right about what we have to prepare for after all this crap is over. But Aisha's right. Those people need someone to help them, and if we can, there's no reason not to." He let his fingers drum on the table. "Besides that, we hear a lot of talk about Sousou and Sonken. I want to meet them for myself. I think it'll give us a better idea of whether we can trust them or not."

Everyone at the table gave Ragna some form of agreeable smile, cementing his decision in his own mind. Shoukatsuryou, however, raised the next issue immediately afterward. "If we go, Lord Ragna, we'll be taking yourself, Aisha, Rinrin, and either me or Hinari. We'll need someone to manage the defenses in case something happens. I personally recommend the Bi sisters and Captain Ton from Rinrin's unit..."

In the end, it was decided that Houtou would stay behind and manage the affairs, with Ryuubi acting as her assistant and the aforementioned Bi sisters and Ton as the heads of the reserve forces. With all of that decided, Ragna sent the messenger back to Nanpi with the message, and began to prepare for the week-long trip to the rendezvous point, which was about a week's journey away from the Sishui and Hulao Passes that guarded the way into Luoyang.

* * *

**Henan province, En encampment**

**Seven months and one week after the prophesied arrival of the Messenger of Heaven**

If it weren't for the fact that it would have made a poor impression with the other heads of state, Shoukatsuryou would have probably hidden behind Ragna as they stood and presented themselves to Enshou, Sousou, and Sonken.

In all honesty, Enshou herself was not particularly intimidating. Her blonde hair was styled into extremely large ringlets, and she wore golden armor over a red skirt and a rather gaudy sword; her smile seemed sincere, but the way she carried herself made it completely obvious that she had a bit of a swollen ego.

Sousou and Sonken were exactly the opposite, examining Ragna with keen, sharp eyes. For his own part, Ragna stared back without even flinching. He had a clear height advantage over both of them, and they didn't seem particularly dressed for combat. Sousou had added a pair of arm bracers and an armored corset to her usual ensemble, but all Sonken had done was put on a rather elaborate headpiece; Ragna was particularly unimpressed by the way her dress exposed her navel and the underside of her cleavage.

However, neither Sonken nor Sousou had come alone.

A girl with brown hair tied in a pair of low buns behind her ears and a monocle covering her right eye, stood quietly at Sonken's side, wearing a purple hat and matching dress with long sleeves. She was probably around Ryuubi's age, and the nervousness was clear in her light brown eyes.

A younger girl in a blue dress with a pale-green catlike hood and short light-brown hair was right next to Sousou. She leered nastily at both Shoukatsuryou and Ragna, but shrank back a little bit when Ragna noticed her combative expression and intensified his own stare to intimidate her a little more.

The atmosphere stayed extremely tense for a while as they kept sizing each other up, and eventually, Enshou broke the tense atmosphere with a surprisingly polite nod. "Lord Ragna of Zhuo, yes? It's a pleasure to meet the Messenger of Heaven in the flesh. I am Honsho Enshou of the En family, China's most prestigious lineage."

Ragna returned the nod. "It's a pleasure." He patted Shoukatsuryou on the back gently, and he felt the slight tremor in her body vanish. "This is Koumei Shoukatsuryou, my strategist."

Sousou smirked slightly and put her right hand on her hip. However, her gaze did not become any less challenging toward Ragna. "Moutoku Sousou of Gi." She nodded to the girl beside her. "This is my strategist, Bunjaku Jun'iku."

In contrast, Sonken's attitude was honest and polite as she nodded at Ragna, though her arms stayed folded and her expression remained serious. "Chuubou Sonken of Go." She turned her head slightly to look at her companion, and the girl's nervous expression vanished under a blush. "My strategist, Shimei Ryomou."

After Sonken's introductions, Enshou sighed and crossed her arms, sweeping her green eyes over the group, then the camp around them. "Ordinarily I would say that we should begin these proceedings, but it seems like we're missing someone. I told that foolish girl Kousonsan that we were starting promptly at noon."

"And I sent you a messenger saying that I had a dispute in camp to settle and that I would be slightly late, Enshou," Kousonsan's voice replied as she walked up to them. Though her actual style and choice of clothing was exactly the same, Kousonsan looked much more rested and fresh than she had during the Yellow Turban Rebellion. The disgruntled frown on her face fell away as soon as she saw Ragna, and she smiled broadly at him. "Ragna, my friend. You're looking great."

"So are you, Hakukei," Ragna replied. "The Turban leftovers didn't trouble you, I'm guessing?"

Kousonsan laughed, and stood next to him. "Not even close." She spread her hands out as she faced the other generals. "Again, I apologize for my tardiness. Some of my men decided to place a side bet on a silly game and got into a fistfight over it. I had to sit and make them see reason. So let's not delay any more."

"Indeed," Enshou replied, her tone slightly annoyed. "As nice as it is to see our two lowborn fellows get along so nicely, you can have your reunions once we're done here."

Ragna and Kousonsan both shot her dirty looks, but Enshou completely ignored them and continued talking. "Ahem. Yes. As I was going to say...we've gathered here today to discuss the matter of that impudent Toutaku taking power in Luoyang. Being the head of the distinguished En family, I am most happy to lead a united front against this usurper, but in order to do so, I must ask that you great generals lend me your strength."

"So long as you don't intend to pass _our_ strength off as _your _strength, then most certainly," Sousou said. Her manner of speaking made it sound like she was talking about the weather, but the insult was most definitely clear, and Ragna could see Jun'iku's lips twitch in amusement.

Enshou immediately bristled at that. "I'm sorry, little one. I don't believe the adults heard you from all the way down there. Would you mind saying that again?"

Sousou narrowed her eyes into blue slits. "Or perhaps your hearing and your looks are both dropping off at the same rate, you old hag. As is your common sense. If you really think that the empress of Gi is a child, I'll be happy to kill you as a demonstration otherwise."

The two women continued to glare at each other, but right as Enshou started to speak up again, Ragna cut in with a loud grunt. "Jeez, is this a pissing contest or a war council? Both of you cut it out already. We've got better shit to do and you're holding us up."

Shoukatsuryou managed to avoid hissing, but wanted nothing more than to be extremely far away from this place at the moment as Sousou, Jun'iku, and Enshou stared in his direction again.

"I find it interesting that such an ugly man would feel fit to involve himself in business that doesn't concern him," Sousou said frostily. Ragna could feel a retort on the tip of his tongue, as the way she'd spoken reminded him way too much of Rachel. "However, I will agree; this is no time to be arguing over such trivial things."

"...Yes," Enshou replied, trying to appear to be the bigger woman now that Sousou's ire had been drawn toward Ragna's thoughtless rebuke. "It isn't. So, let's continue with the meeting." She unclenched her fists, and put her hands on her hips. "I am assuming that we are all in agreement about the fact that Toutaku must be punished for his behavior. So let's move on to who will lead our alliance." A slow smile spread across her face, and Sonken and Sousou both looked annoyed by it, while Kousonsan frowned suspiciously. "I believe that with the exception of Zhuo, the rest of us have the resources, provisions, and talented soldiers to execute this task, but without a leader, all of that is meaningless. So, I propose that the most distinguished amongst us, with the divine talent of a long-standing bloodline, be the one to—"

"If you're about to say that you should lead us, I'm going to say 'screw this alliance' and go home. I think I'd rather take a blade to the gut first."

The moment that those words came out of Ragna's mouth, Shoukatsuryou couldn't help herself and let out a whimper that sounded like a mouse being crushed underfoot. The only people that didn't stare at Ragna with some form of shock on their faces were Sousou and Jun'iku, who were now clearly smirking at Enshou's rapidly reddening complexion.

"Would you like to repeat that again, oh great Messenger of Heaven?" Enshou asked loudly.

"All you've done since we started talking was get into a fight with Sousou over stupid personal shit that has no place in a god damn war council and babble about things no one cares about," Ragna said, letting his natural scowl grow darker and fiercer as he went on. "On top of that, you insulted both me and my good friend Hakukei for no real reason. I don't think a spoiled amateur should try to lead a bunch of soldiers up against someone with a reputation like Toutaku's, especially if we have to get through two goddamn fortresses just to get to Luoyang." He looked to Sousou and Jun'iku, then to Sonken and Ryomou, then to Kousonsan. "Am I right?"

To his surprise, Sonken spoke first, with slightly more warmth in her voice than before. Ragna could have sworn that she was almost smiling as she looked at him. Almost. "I agree."

Ryomou nodded and spoke up for the first time. Her voice was surprisingly clear, and lighter than Sonken's, but was softened by clear nervousness. "As do I."

Sousou's smirk grew, and she closed her eyes as she replied. "You're correct."

Jun'iku and Kousonsan nodded, though the former took a moment to still leer nastily at Ragna.

Enshou growled, but knew that it would do her no good to go up against the combined disapproval of all her peers. "Then who exactly do you nominate? Yourself?"

Ragna snorted. "Hell, no. Said it yourself earlier, didn't you? I'm kind of lacking in troop power and resources. Besides that, I ain't made for strategy and tactics beyond 'go here and smash this guy and move here when you need to'. If I had to recommend someone, it'd be either Sousou or Sonken. They're used to leading big armies and would probably have a better idea how to move and place us."

Sousou and Sonken both blinked at that suggestion, and took a moment to look at Ragna once again. Seeing no duplicity in the bored scowl on his face, they turned to each other.

"Well, Sonken? What do you think of that proposal?" Sousou asked. Her smirk was challenging, but less mocking than it had been when Ragna criticized Enshou or asked the other rulers to give their opinions about her.

Sonken shrugged. "I have no particular interest in taking the lead in this alliance. I'll participate fully, of course, but otherwise I am fine with working under you instead of above you."

Sousou turned back to the others. Jun'iku in particular couldn't help a small, self-satisfied laugh, and Ragna managed to resist the urge to roll his eyes. "Then I accept the position, unless there are any objections."

No one said a word.

Sousou clapped her hands. "Then we've come to an accord. Excellent!" The satisfied look disappeared from her face shortly afterward. "Now the next question is how we will assign who does what..."

* * *

Ten minutes later, Ragna and Shoukatsuryou were back in their own camp. Once Sousou had been elected the leader of the alliance, things had moved very quickly; despite the fact that Sousou was controlling the discussion, Enshou had been allowed to speak as freely as any of the other generals or strategists, but did so rarely, as she was clearly sulking over Ragna's interference in her plans to lead the alliance, and often glared in his direction.

In contrast, Sousou seemed to deliberately go out of her way to test and prod at Ragna and Shoukatsuryou, asking their opinions directly on the majority of the potential plans to assault Sishui and Hulao. Shoukatsuryou, despite her discomfort at Ragna's earlier conduct, replied normally, as did Ragna, and Sonken, Ryomou, Jun'iku, and Kousonsan seemed satisfied simply to let her do so, though Kousonsan at least interjected whenever she felt that Ragna and Shoukatsuryou were being too bullied or that Sousou was overlooking something important.

Ultimately, Sousou had proposed to send spies ahead to Sishui and Hulao, as there was little information about the defenses set up at either fortress. Everyone had agreed to that plan, and dedicated a number of men to the group that would be sent to gather that information.

Once they were safely in their own camp, Ragna let out a low sigh, and looked down at a frowning Shoukatsuryou, who'd said nothing to him the entire way back. "I'm sorry, Shuri. I know I was dumb back there, but I meant what I said about Enshou. She's petty and stupid and I wasn't about to let her shitty decisions get us all killed."

Shoukatsuryou sighed and frowned. "To be honest, Lord Ragna, I was expecting it. By now I understand that you're just that kind of independent thinker, and I don't blame you for speaking up, especially since it wasn't my place to do so while the leaders were talking. In the future, though, could you please try to be more polite? I understand that you're not used to it, but even so, it's as I've told you before..."

The way her voice sounded both sad and frustrated reminded Ragna way too much of those rare times when Saya would get upset about something, and he bit his lip to remind himself that he was not dealing with his little sister, but with a subordinate that respected him even if his antics drove her up a wall sometimes. "Yeah, I know. I'm trying, Shuri. Really, I am."

Shoukatsuryou finally looked at him, but her mouth was still drawn into a pert frown. "Then please, Lord Ragna, try harder. We are in a sensitive situation in this alliance with En, Gi and Go. We need you to be our leader more than ever now."

When they got to the center of camp, Kan'u and Chouhi, resting from an impromptu spar with live steel, greeted them directly, though Kan'u immediately sobered when she saw the pensive scowl on Ragna's face and Shoukatsuryou's cross expression. "What happened?" Kan'u asked.

"We're going to get information before Sousou decides who's going to do what," Ragna said. "I also might have gotten a bit impatient with Enshou and cut her down a couple of pegs because she was being a pain in the ass."

Shoukatsuryou pinched the bridge of her nose. "He called an argument between Sousou and Enshou a 'pissing contest' and told them to stop, then said that Enshou wasn't qualified to lead the alliance because she was spoiled and arrogant. Then he proposed that either Sousou or Sonken lead us, and Sonken basically allowed Sousou to take the position. It could have gone a lot worse, but it wasn't what I would call a success."

Kan'u gave Ragna an annoyed glare, and Ragna shrugged. "I wasn't lying, though. Enshou's a goddamn idiot. I'm not going to let some incompetent brat get us in all over our heads."

"It was well-said," replied a very familiar female voice from behind them. Ragna grimaced, and turned around and looked downward. Sure enough, Sousou was walking up to them, with Kakouton and a woman with short, slicked-back blue hair flanking her. Both Kakouton and the other woman were wearing a shoulder pauldron shaped like the skull ornaments tying up Sousou's ponytails, as well as armor that covered one part of their chests. However, Kakouton's clothes were colored a dark violet, whereas the other woman's were navy-colored; Kakouton's pauldron covered her right shoulder, while the other woman's pauldron was on her left shoulder.

Ragna, however, paid them no mind, but instead looked at the predatory smile on Sousou's face. For a little girl—or at least someone that looked like one—she possessed a very discomfiting air of danger. "What's the matter, Sousou?" Ragna asked. "You need something from me?"

Sousou put her right hand on her hip once again and barely lifted her head to look Ragna dead in the eyes. "If it's not too much trouble, I would like to speak to Unchou Kan'u."

Ragna stepped back and gestured toward a bemused Kan'u. "There she is."

Sousou's smile widened. "Ah. You're as beautiful as I'd heard... Unchou Kan'u." She glanced at Kan'u's Green Dragon Blade, and nodded, then looked back to Kan'u, continuing to speak with a relaxed, casual air. "I have heard much of your valor and your idealism, and your indomitable fighting spirit. Seeing you now has confirmed what I believed. Everything that you are is all too beautiful to be bound to to an ugly man. Your existence is worth much more than his. You have no reason to follow him."

Kan'u blushed, but her eyebrows drew into an angry furrow. "U-ugly man? How dare you speak of Lord Ragna that way? You know nothing about him or about me if you think I would be flattered by someone who would insult my lord so casually!"

Ragna's ire spiked slightly as well; this was the second time he'd been called ugly by Sousou, and while he was more than willing to bite his tongue on the subject of personal insults, that was only if they weren't directed at him and if they weren't given while he was standing in his own camp. "Are you really in any position to be calling names, midget?"

Kakouton snarled, and her hand immediately flew to her back, where the bandage-wrapped hilt of her sword was visible over her left shoulder. "How dare you speak to Lady Karin that way, you miserable—"

"Shunran," Sousou said, her voice dropping to just above a whisper, "if that hand touches that sword, you will regret it later."

Kakouton immediately froze, then lowered her hand and stood silently, glaring at Ragna with undisguised hatred. With Kakouton silenced, Sousou raised her voice and continued speaking. "Unchou Kan'u. Become mine. Break from his ugliness and his pathetic army, and use the power of Gi to accomplish all that you could desire. Talent, soldiers, and funds will be at your endless disposal." Then, a note of pure longing and lust entered her voice. "And I will show you personally the pleasure that a fool like him could never give to you."

The entire Zhuo camp, whether by coincidence or design, fell silent at that moment. Ragna's brows began to furrow as his temper ran hotter than ever before.

Before he said a word, Kan'u's patience hit the exploding point and filled that awful silence.

"You claim to think me and my ideals beautiful, and yet you spit on me and everything that I am by entreating me as if I'm some common mercenary!" Kan'u roared. It took a tremendous force of will on her part to remember that she was speaking to Moutoku Sousou, and that she could not kill the short, arrogant blonde on the spot. "I do not need anything that such a fool would dare offer me! I have no need of your talent, your funds, your soldiers, or even your damned 'pleasure'!" She rapped the Green Dragon Blade on the ground. "I have pledged my life to the service of Ragna of Zhuo, the Messenger of Heaven and the man that will end this war-torn era! I will never be anything other than the Green Dragon Blade of Youzhou and his first vassal! He may be 'ugly' to you, but this man has a heart and a soul far purer than yours! I would sooner die than betray him!"

Sousou and Ragna both were completely taken aback by this explosion, and though Kakouton tensed again, she remembered Sousou's warning from earlier, and held herself in place by force of will. Seeing that Sousou had no counter to this, Kan'u turned her back on the party from Gi completely, and did not flinch in the slightest. "I will hear nothing more from you, Moutoku Sousou. Be gone from this place."

After a few moments, Sousou regained her composure, but something thirsty had come into her smile now. "The more you deny me, the more I want you. However, I suppose that I should not be so foolish as to cause a scene in a place where I'm clearly not welcome." She looked over at a still-stunned Ragna. "I don't quite understand what an ugly man like you did to earn the trust of my beautiful Kan'u. But know this. She will be _mine._ Heaven is on my side, not yours."

It was the particular inflection and emphasis on the word _mine _that made Ragna's shocked expression disappear. Without even realizing it, he clenched his right hand into a fist, and to the astonishment of everyone present, spurts of black flame began to roil up from it. His canines seemed to glisten as he bared his teeth at Sousou. "Aisha's not a fucking _thing. _She's a person with her own goddamn feelings and thoughts. I don't own her and you sure as fuck won't either! If you ever talk to her or any of my partners with that level of disrespect again, I'll put this fucking sword through your gut and split you in half from your crotch up to your pin-sized head." His voice raised to an infernal roar, and it was everyone else's turn to shrink back from him as his right eye seemed to blaze with hatred. _"Get the fuck out of my camp right now or I'll throw you out in fucking pieces!"_

The air was still and heavy with the oppressive rage that seemed to billow out from Ragna's posture and clenched hands. There was no more strange fire coming from his right hand, but no one, not even Sousou, dared to say a word to him. In fact, a small bead of sweat was actually crawling down Sousou's cheek as she stared at Ragna, and yet she couldn't take her eyes off of him.

_Is this it?_ She felt the fear in her belly roiling, mixing with a strange admiration of his ferocity. How had she missed this fearsome aura been hiding behind that annoyed scowl?_ Is this why she follows him so devotedly?_

Then, he took three ominous steps, and stood in front of her directly. Kakouton and the other woman quickly moved to shield her, but could do no more than that as he stared down at both of them.

"If I have to repeat myself more than twice, someone's going to die," he said, and to their surprise, his voice was barely above a growl now. "So I'll say it one more time, politely even. Get out of my camp. If you don't, Gi is going to be down one empress."

After what felt like an eternity, Sousou finally recovered herself. "Shunran. Shuuran. I believe you heard Ragna. We're leaving."

Both of her bodyguards nodded dumbly, and stepped back to her side. Ragna stepped back as well, but his glare remained stony and hateful. However, once he was no longer in her face, Sousou smiled again, in that hungry, predatory way. "Ragna of Zhuo. I apologize. You are indeed an ugly man. But you are not a weak one. I will not make that mistake again. However, take heed. I will have Kan'u. But I will have you, as well. And both of your prides shall be broken under my heel. You both will be mine."

And before Ragna could step forward, before he could give in to the surge of baying blood that told him to take her head from her shoulders, Sousou walked away, and her bodyguards walked with her.

He snarled, bitterly, wrathfully, but was prevented from moving when his right arm nearly exploded with pain. Hissing, he took several shallow breaths and gripped it as tightly as he could, realizing that his peaking emotions had pushed it too far again. When at last the pain stopped, he turned back to Kan'u, Chouhi, and Shoukatsuryou, then saw that they were all looking at him with naked, undisguised fear.

Something broke in him at that, and he felt a weariness settle over him that he hadn't felt in a while.

Noticing the dead look that suddenly crawled over his face, Kan'u spoke, her voice quiet and wispy. "Lord Ragna..."

"You are not _mine_, Aisha," Ragna said, his voice equally soft. "You are not a thing. You're a goddamn human being, and if that jumped-up bitch tries to tell you otherwise ever again you'd better knock her flat on her ass." He looked around, and saw that a group of Zhuo soldiers had gathered to see the incident. Somehow he managed to raise his voice again, but something in it was broken, tired, even as he swung his hand through the air to punctuate his point. "And that goes for the rest of you too. No one has any goddamn right to tell you that you are a thing! You're human beings! All of you! Live like you are until the very end of your goddamn lives!"

That proclamation rang out loud and clear, even as Ragna slowly, quietly, lowered his hand.

That proclamation rang out loud and clear, even as Ragna slowly walked to his personal tent, and the speechless crowd parted to let him through.

That proclamation rang out loud and clear, even as Kan'u, Chouhi, and Shoukatsuryou looked at each other with concern, and Kan'u finally asked the question that was on their minds, their soldiers' minds, and even Sousou's mind.

"What was that?"

* * *

_An honorable rival is better than a deceitful ally. The time may come where the former is willing to take a stand with you to do the right thing, and where the latter is willing to use your friendship as the tool to cast you down._

* * *

_Proverb 4: An Honorable Rival Is Better Than A Deceitful Ally_

* * *

_No extra story this time because of bombshell, and because I couldn't really think of a good one considering that a lot of creative energy went into writing Ragna's extreme charisma break at the end of the chapter._

_Yes, there will be questions about what in the hell was going on with Ragna next chapter, as well as a further exploration about just what exactly Sousou and Sonken think of Ragna. I wanted to at least try and touch on the real reason why Sonken is so interested in him, but too much happened in this chapter for that to get done and I only really got to hint at what was going on with Sousou near the end._

_One reviewer noted that last chapter, Houtou and Shoukatsuryou had a kind of underwhelmed reaction to the idea of the Black Beast. That will be revised shortly._

_Next week: the invasion of Luoyang begins. Proverb 5: There Is A Time And A Place to Humble An Enemy At Your Mercy._

_See you then._

_~ZS_


	6. Proverb 5

**Henan province, Gi encampment**

**Seven months and one week after the prophesied arrival of the Messenger of Heaven**

As she walked back to her camp with Kakouton and Kakouen by her side after her disastrous confrontation with Ragna, the sinister, thirsty smile on Sousou's face caused everyone to give the three of them a wide berth in the Gi camp. Outside of Sousou's personal tent, Kakouton and Kakouen stopped following her, allowing Sousou to go in and change alone.

"That man is too dangerous to allow near Lady Karin, Shuuran," Kakouton said, lowering her voice to a whisper as she spoke to Kakouen. "We can't do anything about him now, but once this anti-Toutaku thing is over and done with, I'm absolutely going to kill him."

Kakouen sighed and brushed the large, sky-blue forelock of her short blue hair out of her face. Despite the calm in her amber eyes, she was no less discomfited by the strange scene that they'd just gotten away from. Nevertheless, if she didn't act as the cool counterpoint to her sister's worries and impulsive behaviors, Kakouton was likely to do something really stupid, like try to sneak back into the Zhuo camp and satisfy her desire to both protect Sousou and assuage her jealousy by killing Ragna. "Are you saying that you don't trust Lady Karin to know her own strength in matters like this? Have faith."

Kakouton's eyes narrowed. "You saw those flames, didn't you?" She hissed. "They were black as coal and made my skin crawl just looking at them. We absolutely cannot let Lady Karin be hurt or even killed by that man. Shuuran. If I die trying to kill him, you have to do it. Lady Karin is the only one fit to rule this land, and if she gets killed by that bastard..."

Kakouton was cut off when Sousou's voice came from the tent. "Shunran, Shuuran. Come here now."

Immediately, the Kakou sisters walked into the tent together. Sousou was sitting on a firm bedroll that was fully unrolled, and smiled warmly at her two generals when they came inside. "I want you two to find out what's going on with dinner; if it's prepared, have it sent to me immediately. Make sure that our spies join up with the other camps' own before the hour is out. I don't intend to be encamped here longer than we need to be; we need to conserve supplies for the march on Sishui Pass, and their information will dictate how long we stay here."

"As you wish, Lady Karin," Kakouton said.

"Make sure that the men are also given standing orders to avoid antagonizing the soldiers from Zhuo, as well. Any man found violating that decision will be beaten for insubordination."

Kakouton and Kakouen reflexively exchanged glances at that specific order, but even though they only moved their eyes and not their heads, Sousou saw it anyway and her eyes narrowed while her smile fell. "Is there a problem with what I just said?"

"Not at all, Lady Karin," Kakouton replied quickly.

Sousou's expression grew tighter as she stood up and walked towards the Kakou sisters. Once she was within arm's reach, she stroked Kakouton's jaw with her fingers, and put on a cool smile. "You're angry and afraid, Shunran. I can see it in your eyes. Do you really hate Ragna that much?"

Despite herself, Kakouton blushed, frowning angrily, and Kakouen smiled, shaking her head. _Shunran, you let Lady Karin in too easily._

"I do," Kakouton whispered at last, drawing her eyebrows together and looking away from Sousou with shame written all over her face. "I have hated him since I heard of him, and what he said and nearly did to you today was absolutely unforgivable. And I'm ashamed that I let him scare me...his eye and those strange flames overwhelmed me."

"Look at me, Shunran," Sousou whispered. When Kakouton did so, she saw that Sousou was completely solemn now, no longer in a mood to tease or to scold. "There's no shame in feeling those emotions. But you have to control and confront them." The cold smile returned to her face. "I, too, was afraid of Ragna, afraid of his presence. But I will overcome that fear, and break him. You have to overcome it as well, and I know you can."

Kakouton simply nodded, completely transfixed by Sousou's words. Satisfied by this, Sousou patted Kakouton's cheek, then stepped back. "Now, go and do as I ordered you. The men may not have been planning on it to begin with, but it's important that they know not to do anything that Ragna might perceive as an offense. This alliance must hold until after Toutaku's defeat and our safe return to Gi."

Kakouton was immediately all business once again, and nodded sharply, as did Kakouen. "Yes, Lady Karin!"

Once the Kakou sisters made their exit, Sousou pressed her fingers to her mouth and smiled once again, recalling the bestial look on Ragna's face with a shiver of fear and excitement. "Yes. You're the first man that I have feared in a long time, Ragna of Zhuo, and the first man that I have ever wanted to make mine. I never thought I could find such beautiful wrath or possessiveness in such an ugly man."

A soft, throaty laugh bubbled out of her mouth.

* * *

**Henan province, Zhuo encampment**

In the Zhuo camp, the atmosphere was still disturbed. The men whispered and talked to themselves, while Kan'u, Chouhi, and Shoukatsuryou hovered uncertainly around Ragna's tent. Eventually, though, it was Chouhi of all people that gradually made her way to the entrance of the tent, marching straight and fearless. She stopped just short of actually going inside, though, and paused for a minute, then nodded. "Big bro! Can I come in?" she shouted.

No reply came, and after a few moments more, Chouhi poked her head inside, ignoring the queasiness in her gut. The tent, with its openings near the top, was not anywhere near completely dark, so she could see Ragna sitting on his bedroll with his head down and his elbows on his knees, with his hands knitted together. Blood-Scythe was lying on the ground at the center of the tent. Ragna's lack of movement gave Chouhi enough courage to slowly step inside and walk over to where he was sitting. He seemed to not notice her, but when she tried to sit down next to him on his right side, he wordlessly shuffled over to allow her space. With a confused, petulant frown, Chouhi leaned forward slightly and looked at Ragna. "Big bro, what happened out there with Sousou? Your arm...your eye...they were really scary."

Ragna didn't answer, but after a moment, raised his head. Chouhi could see that his right eye was half open, as if he were falling asleep. Soon enough, though, it turned toward her, a dull, bored red. After taking in her concern, he finally spoke. "Where are Aisha and Shuri?"

Seeing that his eye was normal gave Chouhi the ease of mind to relax a little more. "They're outside. They want to know what happened, too, but everyone's too scared to come in." She puffed her chest out, and both she and her tiger hairpin bore a proud smile. "Everyone except me, of course."

Something about the way Chouhi said that caused a short bark of laughter to come out of Ragna's mouth, and Chouhi jumped at how loud and sharp it sounded. A bitter smirk passed across his lips, and he shook his head. "You're a brave girl, Rinrin." He let out a breath through his nose, causing his narrow nostrils to flare slightly. "Find Aisha and Shuri, and bring them inside."

Chouhi nodded, got up and left the tent. Not long afterward, she came back in with Kan'u and Shoukatsuryou behind her. Ragna lifted his head again and looked in their direction, noting that Kan'u and Shoukatsuryou didn't seem nearly as frightened anymore. "I owe you all an explanation about what happened out there. Sit down."

Chouhi immediately sat down next to Ragna again, and Kan'u, a slight blush coloring her cheeks, took Ragna's other side. Shoukatsuryou pouted for a moment, then sat down in front of Ragna, rearranging her skirt so that she wasn't crushing it too badly.

"Lord Ragna, are you sure you want to talk about this now?" Kan'u asked, her voice soft. "You seem very tired and very upset. It can wait if it must."

Ragna shook his head. "I wanna get it out of the way now, while I'm still in the mood for it. Shuri has heard part of this story already, but since I haven't told you, let me give you a little backstory."

With that introduction, Ragna proceeded to summarize the story he had told Houtou and Shoukatsuryou about the Black Beast and the Six Heroes, and explained what the NOL was again. When he mentioned the Black Beast itself, Kan'u looked extremely queasy, while Chouhi just gaped in shock, and possibly a little confusion. Shoukatsuryou clasped her hands together and shook her head, noting that Ragna now seemed far more affected by the story than before, particularly when he stressed how in many ways, the NOL acted the way that Toutaku was acting in Luoyang. The parallels to Toutaku's complete usurpation became frighteningly clear to the three girls when he mentioned the Ikaruga Civil War, wherein the NOL had taken drastic steps to completely wipe out the eponymous rebel federation and barely left anyone alive to talk about it.

Then, Ragna got to the part of the story that was a bit more personal.

"When I was a kid," Ragna said, "me, my sister Saya, and my brother Jin all lived in a church with a woman by the name of Celica. We called her 'Sister' or 'The Sister', and she was...kind of like a priestess, I guess." A smile had been working its way onto his face, but it faded as he kept talking. "Saya started to get really sick, and Jin began to get really clingy with me because I was spending a lot of time trying to help the Sister take care of Saya."

Something in his voice cracked.

"Then, one day...I came back from an errand in the town nearby, and the church was on fire. I went inside and found Jin standing in front of the Sister's dead body with a sword that had a blade like frozen ice, and a man, I think, standing behind him." He shook his head slowly. "I don't remember much of what I heard, but what I do know is that Jin cut off my right arm, and left me there to die. I haven't seen Saya since that day."

The girls gaped at Ragna in horror, then stared at his arm. Before anyone spoke, though, he held up his left hand. "Yeah, I know. I'm getting to that part. Anyway, when I woke up, that was the first time I met my master Jubei and this annoying little shrimp named Rachel. By then, my arm was like this." He pushed up his sleeve, exposing the dark bandages that covered his arm. "Master called it 'the Azure Grimoire', and said that it would give me tremendous power. It's basically a more powerful version of the weapons that were used to destroy the Black Beast, maybe the most powerful one of its kind." He shook his head. "Ever since I came here, though, it hasn't been working right. In fact, what happened with Sousou was the most it's worked since I showed up. And even after that it started to hurt a hell of a lot, like it was gonna explode or something. It looks like if I get too angry, it starts to go out of control, but that never happened while I was using it against the Library."

Shoukatsuryou's eyes narrowed as she connected the dots, and Kan'u looked over at her in confusion. Chouhi, though couldn't help but reach out and poke Ragna's right arm. When he felt it, Ragna squawked in surprise and gently slugged Chouhi in the shoulder. "Cut that out! Don't poke at it!"

Chouhi completely ignored him and kept poking, muttering, "It feels normal." Ragna swatted at her hand a few times until she finally stopped and pulled away with a pout.

"Heaven is a terrible, yet wondrous place," Kan'u murmured. "It was devastated by a great monster, and yet your people rebuilt high in the mountains. You lost an arm, and yet it was replaced with this Azure Grimoire. But even after fighting against the Black Beast, there was still no peace in the world." She slowly reached a hand out toward Ragna, and he didn't move when she gently, almost hesitantly, rubbed the back of his left hand. "Why would your brother do such a thing to you?"

"I think it might've been that other guy at the church that had something to do with it," Ragna said, scowling at mention of Jin, "but I have no way to be sure. I couldn't see shit aside from a fuzzy outline. I don't even know where Jin got that goddamn sword in the first place."

When Kan'u's voice trailed off, Shoukatsuryou's picked up. "Lord Ragna, you mentioned earlier that you were using the Grimoire against the Library. You told me once that they did something very wrong to you and your family. Do you think that they might have somehow been responsible for the fire?"

To Ragna's credit, he managed to keep his face from completely shutting down, but the thinning of his lips made his response to that clear enough. "I think they were. Master told me that the Azure Grimoire was being kept in the church, and one of the Library's goals is to 'regulate' weapons like it. So if they decided that they wanted to take it, then..."

The implications of that were not lost on even Chouhi, whose blank expression grew into an angry frown. However, no one said anything else after that, and Ragna took the opportunity to stand up. "So, story time's over. Keep this to yourselves, yeah? If the soldiers ask you any questions, tell them that it was just my divine wrath made manifest or something." He snorted, but the normal force that he put into the action was absent. "If that bitch Sousou tries anything with you all, tell me. I'll knock her head right off her shoulders."

At mention of Sousou, Kan'u remembered how fiercely Ragna had defended her during the confrontation, and how he seemed to make a point of insisting that Kan'u was not a possession—neither his nor Sousou's_._ Before Kan'u could ask Ragna why he'd gotten so upset, though, he was already walking out of the tent, and showed no signs of turning around. Kan'u quickly moved to follow, but Shoukatsuryou stood up and blocked her way with a small frown. "Aisha, I think Lord Ragna needs a little space. I don't think he really wanted to tell us that story, and he probably needs some time to clear his head."

"I have a question I need to ask him," Kan'u replied hotly. She tried to step around Shoukatsuryou, but the smaller girl kept blocking her way every time. "It's only a small thing, Shuri. Let me by!"

"I think Shuri's right, sis," Chouhi said, jumping up from Ragna's bedroll. "Big bro looked really mad about something. If you go and bother him now, I think he'll only feel worse. Leave him alone for now."

Kan'u pressed her lips together in frustration, but could tell that neither Chouhi nor Shoukatsuryou would budge on this, and after listening to Ragna's long and rather depressing story, she didn't have the energy to try and win an argument with either of them. The question of why he had defended her so fiercely would have to remain unanswered for another day.

* * *

**The next day**

Breakfast in the Zhuo camp was quiet and understated. Ragna dined with the soldiers, but to his distinct lack of surprise, no one seemed particularly comfortable near him except for Kan'u, Chouhi, and Shoukatsuryou, not even the men from his own personal unit.

After eating, Ragna had taken Blood-Scythe and gone off to another corner of the camp, and Kan'u, refusing to be sidelined by Chouhi or Shoukatsuryou again, followed after him as soon as they left the table themselves. After a few minutes of walking, Ragna stopped in a place where no tents had been pitched, and began to swing Blood-Scythe around vigorously, twirling the handle between his fingers to switch between a reverse and a regular grip without even thinking about it. It was not the first time Kan'u had seen Ragna practice, but she had not had any opportunities to see him this intensely focused on it; he was usually in the courtyard of the palace, and was carrying on a conversation with her or one of the other members of the court. The spell was broken, though, when Ragna jammed Blood-Scythe into the ground after a violent overhead swing, and said, "What is it, Aisha? You've been staring at me like you got punched in the face, and it's kind of distracting."

Kan'u blinked, then coughed and cleared her throat, blushing violently. "I'm sorry, Lord Ragna. I just meant to...there's something I wanted to talk to you about. Yesterday, when Sousou...said those things about me...you went out of your way to stress that I was a person and not a thing. It meant a lot to me, and I'm truly grateful that you feel that way...about me." Her blush seemed to magnify for a moment, but she soon stopped for a moment and took a breath. _Control yourself, Aisha. You can't read into it too much. He's your lord, it's not appropriate to feel this way. _"Why did Sousou's words bother you so much?"

To her surprise, Ragna didn't ignore the question or shut down after she asked it. Instead, he turned toward her with folded arms and gave her a look that seemed to indicate he was bored out of his mind. It was only the way his brow furrowed and that his mouth twisted which gave any indication otherwise. "That's a long story," he replied. "And it's not one I'm up to sharing right now." He grimaced, as if realizing what he sounded like, and shook his head. "It sounds shitty, but it's not your job to listen to me angst."

"Lord Ragna, no one expects you to deal with your burdens alone," Kan'u replied. She took a few steps closer to him. Despite her earlier self-admonishment, she couldn't help but remember how softly he'd spoken to her yesterday, which did nothing to stop her pounding heartbeat. However, before she got too close, Ragna turned his back to her and picked up Blood-Scythe again.

He didn't say a word, but it was clearly a sign of dismissal.

It took all of Kan'u's willpower to avoid letting her dismay show. Instead, she opted for a force of anger at being turned away; she could not let him see her falter. "Lord Ragna, please..."

But before she could continue, another woman's voice, energetic and bright, interrupted her. "Lord Ragna of Zhuo? I've got a message for you from Sousou. It's urgent~"

The voice was not one either Ragna or Kan'u recognized, and so they turned in the direction of the rest of the camp to see a brunette about Kan'u's age approaching them. She wore a teal skirt with long black sleeves and puffy shoulders, as well as sturdy, white thigh-high boots. Her high, long ponytail trailed behind her, and her bushy brown eyebrows were partially covered by a maroon headband.

"And who the hell are you?" Ragna asked as he sheathed Blood-Scythe.

The girl grinned and bowed. "Mouki Bachou of Liang, at your service. My father Batou is one of the minor lords participating in the alliance."

Kan'u frowned thoughtfully, then snapped her fingers. "Bachou of Liang...then you're Bachou the Splendid?"

Bachou laughed ruefully. "That's what they call me, but please, just Bachou is fine. It's an honor to meet you, Lord Ragna, Lady Kan'u—your reputations precede you." Her cheerful expression faded as she focused on Ragna. "Sousou's giving marching orders to all the armies, her own included. She said that she wants to be as close as possible to Sishui when the spies come back with the info so that Toutaku doesn't have time to prepare for us. She expects to be marching by midday. She also wanted me to tell you that we'll be deciding on our plans for attacking Sishui Pass the night before we arrive, so be well-rested that day. She wants to run the attack at the crack of dawn."

"The shrimp's pretty smart, I'll give her that much," Ragna muttered. Then, after looking up in the sky and getting a rough gauge of the time, he turned to Kan'u. "You think the men will be ready to go in time, Aisha?"

"I think we can manage it if we move quickly," Kan'u said. She cursed Bachou's timing and bit back a sigh. Had the girl not interrupted, Kan'u might have been able to finally speak her mind, but if such an opportunity had existed, it was gone now. "I'll go tell Shuri and Rinrin to spread the order right away."

Ragna nodded. "I still need to train. When things are in order, come and get me. Have Cerberus ready for me too." A deeper frown flashed across his face. "And for now, let's not talk about things that don't matter. We need to focus on getting into Luoyang, not my shitty personal history."

Kan'u bowed, and pressed her lips together. "As you command, Lord Ragna." She quickly departed, and Bachou and Ragna both watched her leave.

Then, Bachou bowed to Ragna as well. "My father wishes to send his personal regards to you, Lord Ragna. We've heard a lot about your exploits against the Yellow Turbans. If it pleases you, he'd like to consider an alliance after Toutaku is defeated."

Ragna sighed, and unsheathed Blood-Scythe. "Tell him I'll consider it based on how things turn out here. If you don't have anything else to share with me, I need to get back to training."

Bachou nodded, and stepped away quietly. As she did so, Ragna began to swing again, keeping his expression carefully blank even though he was finally alone again.

* * *

True to her word, Kan'u delivered the message to Chouhi and Shoukatsuryou, and by the time Sousou was ready to march, Zhuo's army was more than ready to move with them.

The next several days were much the same for everyone in the alliance. There would be a march from dawn till noon, at which point there would be a short lunch break followed by more marching; camp would be made at dusk, and marching would begin again at dawn of the next day. This pattern continued until the anti-Toutaku alliance arrived at a site a few hours away from Sishui Pass, right as dusk was coming on; by that time, it had been about a week since the war council. The spies had been given a map of the area as well as instructions for where to meet the army, and sure enough, the spies were there and waiting by the time that the alliance arrived. The chosen location was behind a moderately-sized rock formation, and camp was arranged in such a way that no one from the Sishui Pass would be able to see them that easily.

That same evening, another war council was called.

* * *

**Henan province, encampment near Sishui Pass**

**Seven months and two weeks after the prophesied arrival of the Messenger of Heaven**

**The night before the assault on Sishui Pass**

The sun was only starting to set when the council was called; there was probably about another hour or two before it became too dark to see unaided. As before, Sousou, Sonken, Ragna, Enshou, and Kousonsan were all present, with Jun'iku accompanying Sousou, Ryomou accompanying Sonken, and Shoukatsuryou accompanying Ragna.

If anything, Sousou's stunt a week earlier only served to make the tense atmosphere more so. Ragna's normal scowl was as dark as a thunderhead waiting to break, while Sousou's self-satisfied smirk only seemed to grow wider whenever she looked at Ragna (and Jun'iku seemed visibly repulsed by him, if her half-lowered eyelids and morose stare were accurate). Everyone noticed it, even Enshou, but no one said a word about it.

"According to the information from the spies, Kayuu is the general in charge at Sishui," Sousou said. She and Jun'iku were standing in front of the others; there was a table with a map laid out in front of her. "She's known to be a stubborn sort, so I imagine that she'll likely try to out-fight us even with her inferior troop numbers." She walked up to the map, and pointed at the black square that marked Sishui Pass, then to another black square that was further behind the first. "As you can see here, Hulao Pass is basically at the top of the ravine, whereas Sishui is at the bottom. We will probably have to take both of them in one day, or they'll have enough time to reinforce their defenses at Hulao and outlast us, possibly even cut us off from our supply chain if it comes down to that."

"So then, how are we going to handle Sishui?" Sonken asked. "A frontal assault would waste time and troops."

Sousou smirked, and Jun'iku spoke instead. "Exactly why we need someone to act as the decoy. If Sishui Pass is like a tortoise's shell, then all we need is the right bait to get Kayuu's forces to come out of that shell. Once we lure them out far enough, we can ambush them and allow the other forces to storm the fortress; Kayuu's men will be so thinly spread that they won't be able to defend both locations." She came to the map and picked up some small stones that rested beside it, placing one in the middle of the ravine. After that, she put another two on the left-hind side of the front stone, then another two behind on the right-hind side. "The armies will distribute themselves like this, but these four units in the rear will be farther back. If we make it too obvious, then they won't bite, but if we give Kayuu just enough motivation to chase them down, we win."

Ryomou nodded, and took a moment to adjust the monocle over her eye with a push from her hand, covered as it was by her extremely long sleeve. "Simple, but straightforward. I support it. But who will be the bait? Did you have someone in mind?"

Jun'iku immediately put her mouth into a smirk that could all but match Sousou's. "Why, yes, Lady Ryomou, I did have someone in mind. I think the Zhuo army would be well-suited to that role."

Ragna and Shoukatsuryou had been listening with all due diligence, but at this remark they both looked sharply in Jun'iku's direction. Ragna nearly responded to Jun'iku's suggestion with a very eloquent suggestion to "eat shit and die", but before he did, he remembered that he'd promised Shoukatsuryou that he would stop doing things like that.

Of course, Jun'iku took his hesitance as a sign to keep prodding him. "Your numbers are small enough that Kayuu would likely underestimate your strength. You need not fight till the last man falls, only long enough to ensure that our attack would succeed." The girl's thin lips curled upward even more, and Ragna realized just how wrong that self-satisfied expression looked on a girl that young. "If you don't think your men are up to it, we most certainly could volunteer someone else; it makes no difference to me or to Lady Karin either way."

"Lady Jun'iku, you forget yourself," Shoukatsuryou said sharply. Her voice rose only slightly in volume, but the harsh frown on her face and her narrowed eyes said very clearly that she wasn't about to take another insult to her soldiers. "Our men are more than capable of handling such a simple matter. It would behoove Gi to avoid insulting us further."

Though she at least stopped smirking, Jun'iku kept her cool and stepped back from the table, standing at Sousou's side once again. "There was no insult intended. I simply wanted to make sure that you were _willing_ to participate in the operation."

Ragna recovered himself and gave Jun'iku a hard stare that made her flinch. If she hadn't been in front of a large group she probably would have hidden behind Sousou outright. "We're damn willing. We can pull our weight just as much as any of the big boys can."

Sousou nodded, still appearing comfortably assured in herself. "Very well, then. I'll leave it to you, Ragna, Shoukatsuryou. I expect nothing but success." She then surveyed the other leaders. "If no one else has anything to say, then I'm dismissing this meeting. We'll be moving on Sishui Pass tomorrow morning, and I will inform you of your positions as according to the plans that Keifa laid out just now. All of you rest well tonight and don't overindulge."

The others nodded and left to their own camps. Ragna and Shoukatsuryou were the first to depart, not wanting to allow Sousou any more chances to antagonize them; Sonken and Ryomou were second, mostly because Sonken was clearly following behind Ragna and Ryomou was following Sonken in turn. Kousonsan and Enshou left simultaneously.

* * *

The Zhuo and Go parties had made it about fifty or so paces from the table when Ragna stopped and turned to face Sonken, folding his arms and staring at her tiredly. "What do you want, Sonken? I'm tired from marching and I need some sleep, since apparently that bitch Sousou and her strategist seem to enjoy putting me in situations that piss me off."

Sonken's blue, cat-like eyes didn't waver, and the contrast between the brightness of her eye color and the tan of her skin, as well as the intensity of the stare itself, made clear to Ragna that she would respect his desires, but would not be intimidated. It was a reminder that she was the leader of an entire kingdom, her dubious choice in clothing aside. "I wanted to compliment your behavior earlier. Not just now, but when we first met and Sousou and Enshou were at each others' throats. It's refreshing to have someone else who doesn't have much patience for pointless posturing." A familiar expression, that not-quite, almost-there smile, passed across her face. "I've heard a lot of stories about you, and I've wanted to see for myself just what kind of man the Messenger of Heaven was. I'm...somewhat surprised that it turned out to be someone more like a peasant than a noble."

"If that's supposed to be an insult," Ragna said, "I'll give you credit. It's at least less blatant than what that idiot Enshou said about me and Hakukei being low-born."

Ryomou shook her head rapidly, appearing visibly dismayed, while Sonken pursed her lips. "That wasn't Lady Renfa's intention at all!" Ryomou replied. "What she meant to say was that you behave like a regular person. Differences in status and title don't really matter to you. You don't lord your status over people's heads like Sousou and Enshou—you're a little bit rude sometimes, but you're honest, and..."

Sonken raised a hand. "That's enough, Ashe." Without breaking stride, she bowed her head. "Forgive my impertinence, Ragna. I didn't mean to insult you." She looked up again, and Ragna could see honesty in her troubled frown. "It is as Ashe said, though. I respect your honesty even in the face of rather trying situations. I feel as if you are a man that really rules under the Mandate of Heaven, and I can respect that."

Shoukatsuryou blinked at that, as did Ragna. Sonken had just given Ragna a compliment that not many rulers would give to their ostensible rivals; she had effectively just said that Ragna's rule was justified and supported by Heaven itself. _I know that Sonken is much less focused on conquest than her predecessor Sonsaku, but I had no idea it was to such a degree that she would acknowledge Lord Ragna like that. _She managed to avoid frowning, knowing that the gesture could be interpreted very wrongly. _Is there some sort of alternative angle here? Could she just be trying to ingratiate herself with Lord Ragna...?_

Ryomou seemed discomfited as well, but before she could say anything, Sonken turned away and began to walk off. "Good fortune tomorrow, Ragna," Sonken said. "Rest well."

After a hasty bow, Ryomou followed after Sonken. Ragna kept his eyes on both of them, then after a moment, nodded with a surprisingly toothy grin. "When this is over with, we're sending a messenger to Go. I like her."

Shoukatsuryou's face went red, and she had to fight off the surge of jealousy that wormed into her heart. "I-If you wish to, Lord Ragna, we can arrange for it."

"Hey, now, take it easy," Ragna said. Shoukatsuryou realized that he'd shifted his gaze back to her, and could likely read the discomfort in her face (or had heard her stutter). "Look. She doesn't bullshit around, you know? And for all her talk about how I don't hold my status over other people, she doesn't either. When she fucks up, she's honest about it. Aside from Bachou and Ryomou, she's probably the first person I've met here that doesn't have their head up their ass."

Realizing that Ragna had basically just admitted that he wasn't...interested in Sonken in...that way, Shoukatsuryou relaxed. "I see. Then, I'll make a note of it, Lord Ragna." She smiled a little. "And thank you for not taking Jun'iku's bait earlier."

Ragna shrugged, and continued walking back to camp, leaving Shoukatsuryou to follow after him. "A promise is a promise. I said I'd try to do better, didn't I?"

* * *

**The next morning**

Right as the sun was beginning to peek over the horizon, Ragna, Kan'u, Chouhi, and Shoukatsuryou lead the Zhuo army in a straight march toward the Sishui Pass. Ragna rode on Cerberus, while Shoukatsuryou was on her own, slightly smaller horse and Kan'u and Chouhi walked. Their scouts had already reported that there were no archers up on the ramparts yet; however, there were watchmen up there, and they would likely see the Zhuo army soon enough.

In a slight stroke of fortune, the Zhuo army had been given some much needed supplies, mostly in the form of weapons. Thankfully, in the days since the Yellow Turban Rebellion, they had gained a few more horses and had something of a working cavalry for each general's unit, though it was still relatively small. Jun'iku had been right about one thing—they could not fight a protracted battle in front of Sishui, and would have to engage the enemy well out of range of the ramparts to avoid being shot.

As they approached the fortress, which looked for all the world like a giant gray stone wall between the two ridges of the ravine, Ragna gave orders to his generals with a calm air. "Aisha, Rinrin, I want your archers to give 'em a few arrows to worry about, try to keep 'em from swarming me and stay on a straight-line chase. Since I'm the biggest target, they'll come racing after me like a bat outta hell."

Kan'u nodded, pursing her lips to keep her disagreement with the riskiest part of the plan to herself—namely, the part where Ragna was deliberately using himself as the big bait. If Chouhi had any such worries, she didn't show them, and grinned. "You got it, big bro!"

"Shuri, I'm leaving the rest of my men with you. Use them however you need to."

Shoukatsuryou nodded. "Of course, Lord Ragna."

"Lord Ragna!" one of the scouts shouted from behind. "The gates are opening!"

"Tell half of my unit to stay with Shoukatsuryou, and the other half to stay with me, double-time!" Ragna roared back. "Kan'u and Chouhi's units should be flanking our left and right sides! We're sticking to the plan!"

"Lord Ragna, please, be careful," Kan'u said, gripping the shaft of the Green Dragon Blade as tightly as she dared. "If you fall..."

Ragna drew Blood-Scythe. "We're gonna win this, and we're gonna go back to Zhuo. End of story." He then faced forward once more and squeezed his legs a little closer together. "Get your ass moving, Cerberus! Time to go to work!"

The horse let out a calm snort, but in contrast to that peaceful action, took off like an arrow shot from a bow, stopping a few yards away. Chouhi and Kan'u looked at each other once, then nodded, and went to their respective units to take command. Shoukatsuryou was soon surrounded by the half of Ragna's unit that he'd left to guard her, and she quickly raised her eyes up to the ramparts of Sishui Pass, pulling out her telescope as the other half of Ragna's unit surged past her and gathered around him. Sure enough, there was a contingent of archers up there, but nowhere near the size she'd been expecting. Most of their forces seemed concentrated on the light and heavy infantry that was spilling out to attack Ragna and his unit. It was a small advantage, but a good one for an army with inferior numbers.

_We won't be able to get rid of those archers from here. The gate will have to be breached first. Still, with that low numbers of archers, we should be all right if we're careful._

"Keep your eyes on those ramparts," she said to a soldier standing next to her. "Be prepared to sound the horn once Lord Ragna's drawn them out and off from Sishui. Keep me appraised of Lady Kan'u and Lady Chouhi's positions at all times. We're going to pull further back and to the side so that Lord Ragna's retreat is unobstructed."

The soldier saluted. "Yes, ma'am!"

* * *

In short order, Ragna and his men found themselves on the cusp of battle again as a thick mob of soldiers rushed out of the fortress to meet them and mow them all down. At the far back of the mob, he could see a purple flag on it, and made a mental note; that was likely General Kayuu's unit, and probably the best target for him to take down before the rest of the anti-Toutaku alliance appeared.

"Main problem now is holding out and drawing them back," Ragna muttered. He patted Cerberus on the back of the neck, and stared fiercely at the growing mob. Without turning around, he shouted, "Are Kan'u and Chouhi's units in position?"

"They are, sir!" a soldier shouted in reply. "Lady Shoukatsuryou has drawn her guard off to the side as well! Our way back is clear!"

Ragna allowed himself a tense grin as Cerberus snorted and pawed at the ground. "Good! Remember, pull a slow fighting retreat. Tempt that idiot Kayuu to keep throwing soldiers further and further out from the gates. If I get a shot, I'm gonna try to take her out or capture her myself, got it?"

"Yes, Lord Ragna!" the men roared.

The enemy soldiers were close enough for Ragna to see the sun gleaming on their helmets and the assorted pieces of armor that they wore. With a final breath, he gripped Blood-Scythe as tightly as he could. "All right then, you bastards. Let's do the usual! And if you're gonna die, die fighting!" He squeezed Cerberus's flanks again. "Forward! It's show time!"

Cerberus launched forward again, and Ragna's half-unit followed behind him; a hail of arrows from the rear passed over the infantry's heads, peppering the ground and the enemies in front of them indiscriminately. The advance of the army slowed, and Ragna let out an unearthly roar and slashed through anyone that got close as Cerberus dove into the enemies.

* * *

Farther back from the main battleground, one of Gi's soldiers lowered his telescope and turned to face Sousou, sitting on top of a brown colored horse. Jun'iku and Kakouton flanked her; Kakouen was with Gi's chosen contingent of backup troops, awaiting the signal to move.

"Lady Sousou," he said, "we have confirmation that the Zhuo forces are engaging. It's Lord Ragna's unit in the lead, with Kan'u and Chouhi flanking and laying down additional fire."

Sousou smiled tightly. "That ugly man, under-utilizing Kan'u's strength...what is he playing at, I wonder?" She sighed, and shook her head. "Can you see if Kayuu's flag is on the field yet?"

The soldier put the telescope back to his eye, and nodded. "Yes, it's in the back of the enemy army. She's surging forward, though. It looks like she wants to challenge Lord Ragna directly."

Kakouton snorted. "It seems that the rumors were true about Kayuu, then. Impetuous to a fault and overaggressive as well. Even a clod like Ragna should be able to dispatch her easily."

Jun'iku frowned, and adjusted the small black bow tie at her neck. "And if he doesn't?"

"Then we will step in and do what he couldn't. All the better to me if he winds up dead and I have an opportunity to speak to Kan'u once again. There's no reason she should be beholden to him if he's not alive anymore, is that not so?"

Kakouton managed to keep the pout off her face. Jun'iku did not.

* * *

Unlike Sousou, Sonken more directly observed the battle; though she was still near the rock formation that was hiding the Go army from sight, she was looking through her own telescope, keeping her eyes particularly fixed on Ragna. She was naturally accompanied by both Ryomou and Kannei, but there were two other women with them as well. One was tall and tan-skinned, with green eyes hidden behind a pair of red-framed square-shaped glasses. Her long black hair spilled down past her waist, and was tied off with a pink ribbon at the end. She wore a dark maroon dress that exposed both her cleavage and her navel, as well as dark stockings and white shoes.

This was Koukin Shuuyu, the adviser of Sonken's predecessor and older sister Hakufu Sonsaku. She had not attended any of the war councils mostly as a favor to Ryomou.

The other woman had short, lime-green hair and a golden hairpiece sitting just above her bangs. Like Shuuyu, she had glasses, but these were smaller and pince-nez styled, exposing all of her bright blue eyes. She wore a dress with wide-mouthed short-sleeves; it was styled similarly to Shuuyu's, exposing the same areas, but was brighter in color and more similar to a shortened qipao; white stockings and sturdy brown shoes rounded out her ensemble.

This was Hakugen Rikuson, Shuuyu's student and another strategist in the employ of the Go kingdom.

As the battle raged on and Sonken continued to watch, Shuuyu turned to Sonken with an amused smile playing across her lips. "Well, Lady Renfa? How is your little lord doing?"

"He's not_ mine _in any sense of the word, Koukin," Sonken replied, stifling a sigh. "And I wish you'd stop saying that. I already told you I've no interest in him that way, and I doubt he would be interested in me. I've told you about that 'bride incident' in Xizang already, haven't I?"

"But all of those women weren't of noble standing," Rikuson pointed out, her voice light and airy as usual. "If you were to approach Lord Ragna seriously, Lady Renfa..."

Sonken lowered her telescope and actually turned around to look at both Shuuyu and Rikuson with a flat, annoyed stare. "That man's not stupid enough to take an offer like that at face value, and even if he was, I'm positive his court would warn him of what it would mean to marry the ruler of a rival kingdom." She sighed. "On top of that, Sheren would probably kill me herself if she found out I was considering something like that."

The mere mention of Sheren—rather, Sonsaku—caused Shuuyu's amused smile to become a little more brittle. In all honesty, both Shuuyu and Sonken would have been much more pleased if it were Sonsaku standing in Sonken's place right now, leading the country the way she should have been. Everyone in the court that bothered to look at her knew that Sonken truly did not enjoy her position at all, and would have been all-too happy to let Sonsaku keep it if it had been possible. The fact that Sonken was viewing the job as more of a burden than a duty had already caused friction between her and Shuuyu, despite the fact that Shuuyu had known both Sonsaku and Sonken long enough to basically be a surrogate older sister to Sonken and to the youngest Son princess, Sonshoukou.

However, a country couldn't be led by a fevered, bedridden woman, even if that woman was Hakufu Sonsaku, the Little Conqueror of the Son family and the Go kingdom, and even if that woman was slowly recovering her strength with every passing month. Despite being both Sonsaku's friend and lover, Shuuyu could not have been installed as the ruler of Go without causing some major waves amongst the population. There had already been whispers amongst the population that the Son family might have lost the legitimacy of their rule that was granted by the Mandate of Heaven; Sonsaku's injury and sickness were merely the physical proofs. Sonken's acceptance of the throne had staved that talk off, but only just. It would no doubt come up again and again, especially since Sonken was much more content to preserve territory instead of pushing out to aggressively capture it.

Taking the silence as a cue to go back to what she'd been doing, Sonken raised the telescope to her eye again. Shuuyu sighed, but the smile never quite left her face as she played with the ruffled kerchief at her neck. _It's that trait about the boy that she likes, _Shuuyu thought. _Or those traits, rather. Going by what Renfa has said, he's crass and blunt, but he's honest and has no ambition to conquer China, no dream to become the strongest. He simply chooses to protect what he has, much like she does. _

It was this thought that made Shuuyu's lips purse slightly. She remembered the visit she had paid to Sonsaku before setting out on this campaign, remembered Sonsaku reaching out a pale hand and stroking her cheek so gently before asking her, _"Please take care of Renfa." _More than anything else, she wanted to keep that promise, but at the same time, every day that she kept it meant one more day that Go had not pursued the dream that had been the core of its foundation.

Kannei simply observed Shuuyu from the corner of her eye, and said nothing, making only a mental note to go along with many more that she'd been keeping for some time.

* * *

For the next hour or so, Ragna's men gradually "lost" ground, allowing Kayuu's forces to push them farther and farther away from Sishui Pass. Though there were many attempts by the force to split up and flank them, Kan'u and Chouhi's units eventually moved in and made an allied front against the rest of Kayuu's men, forcing the fight to stay mostly head on.

Eventually, though, Kayuu herself managed to reach the front lines. Ragna himself saw her right as Cerberus came to a stop from a speedy gallop that had allowed him to cut through another swath of enemy soldiers. To his surprise, Kayuu was a tall, fierce woman, slim but well-muscled. She had short silver hair and narrow, piercing amber eyes. She wore a purple, silver-trimmed halter top with pink straps connecting the top to the band around her neck, and a purple dress marked with a butterfly on the right side and trimmed with fur at the bottom. Gloves that matched the dress covered her upper forearms and down to her wrist. Her white, pointed-toe shoes crunched against the dirt, and the pink tassels of the ribbon at the nape of her neck trailed behind her as she leveled her giant halberd and stared at Ragna.

"So, you're the Messenger of Heaven?" she asked. "You don't seem all that impressive to me."

"Those soldiers of yours that I cut up say otherwise, Kayuu," Ragna replied. He took a brief look over her head, and saw that the army was at just the right distance from Sishui and that yet more men were coming out of the fortress. _Almost time to go, _he thought. _I'd better deal with this Kayuu first, though._

With a grunt, Ragna dismounted Cerberus and patted the horse's flank with his left hand. Understanding immediately, Cerberus stepped back a few paces, giving Ragna all the space he needed to fight.

Kayuu smirked, and adjusted her halberd slightly, shifting her hands so that her right was at the silver-scaled bottom third of the shaft, and her left was gripping the mahogany middle part of the shaft. "Ready to die?" she asked.

Ragna scowled. "Hell no."

With a loud cry, Kayuu rushed forward, swinging her halberd down. Ragna swung Blood-Scythe in response, knocking her weapon back, then rushed in with a punch that caught her straight in the jaw. She held firm, and stayed standing, but had to roll out of the way when Ragna followed up by shoving Blood-Scythe forward in a vicious jab at her feet. As Ragna pulled the massive sword upward, Kayuu shook the stars out of her face, and went back in with a vicious barrage of overhead swings. Ragna blocked and parried them with as much speed as he could manage, then shoved his shoulder into her chest, knocking her over. However, Kayuu wasn't that easily discouraged, and broke her fall with a quick roll to the side before getting back to her feet once more. Ragna closed the distance with a quick step and swung Blood-Scythe at her stomach, aiming to cut her at the waist. Kayuu responded by using the butt of her halberd to knock Blood-Scythe out of the way before jabbing Ragna in the sternum with it. When he staggered back from the sudden jolt, Kayuu whirled her halberd overhead and slashed down with it, cutting Ragna's right shoulder open.

Despite the wound, Ragna did little more than hiss and step back. Kayuu let out a harsh bark of laughter. "What's the matter? Can't take a little scratch, you puffed up wimp? Come on, you're supposed to be the man that suppressed the Turbans and brought half of Youzhou under your heel! You can't be that pathetic."

Shortly after that, the sound of a horn echoed through the ravine, and Ragna gripped Blood-Scythe even harder, then rushed Kayuu with a loud roar. _Gotta keep her distracted! As long as she can't make it back to Sishui...as long as I defeat her here...!_

Kayuu's grin matched his snarl, and she ran forward as well. "That's more like it!"

* * *

"I do believe that's our cue," Sousou remarked. She put down her telescope and turned to Kakouton. "Shunran. Go and take command of the other unit so that Shuuran doesn't have to manage it alone. Keifa, you're with me."

Kakouton bowed and left, while Jun'iku sidled closer to Sousou's horse. Sousou smiled as she patted Jun'iku's head absently; she had seen Ragna and Kayuu's flags relatively close together, so she could only imagine that they were actually fighting now. _Oh, to be a bird above that battlefield. But we have to worry about conquering the fortress. Hulao Pass will be my chance to judge him for myself._

* * *

Sonken sighed as the horn sounded, and turned to Shuuyu. "Give the men their marching orders. Hakugen, go with Koukin. Kouha, Ryomou, stay with me."

Shuuyu and Rikuson nodded, and walked away. Kannei and Ryomou came to Sonken's side, and together, they began to move forward, followed by Sonken's personal squad. "I'll be glad to see the end of this," Kannei said quietly. "Waiting is tedious."

Sonken allowed herself a slight nod. "I agree."

* * *

A few minutes after the horn sounded, Kan'u, leading the charge at the head of her unit, slashed down another enemy, then turned around to see the flags of Gi and Go approaching from behind at a rapid speed, and behind them, Kousonsan and the other members of the alliance. With a tight grimace, she glanced over at a nearby soldier. "We need to make a pathway for the rest of the alliance to attack Sishui! Prepare to split the forces!"

The soldier nodded, and raised the horn at his side to his lips, blowing a specific pattern that only the Zhuo soldiers would recognize. Kan'u took a brief moment to look over to Kayuu's flag flying in front of Ragna's, and did her best to stop her heart from pounding in her chest. "I believe in you, my lord," she whispered. "Please, don't die."

* * *

If Ragna could have heard Kan'u, he probably would have cringed.

The fact of the matter was that Kayuu was good. Very good. They'd been trading blows back and forth for a good while now, and while Ragna hadn't taken another slash to the chest, Kayuu had been bludgeoning him with the butt of her halberd every chance she'd got, coupled with a few light slashes at his legs. She'd cut his pants and the legs beneath a few times, but nothing heavy; unlike his old jacket, though, it'd be easy to get pants in the same style made later back at Xizang. To his credit, Kayuu's jaw was bruising where Ragna had punched her earlier, and though he hadn't hit her after his shoulder-check, her movement was slower and more cautious than it had been before.

However, Kayuu's attention was entirely on him, and not at all on the rest of the battle. Any of her men nearby that could have told her about what was going on were either in a fight, or dead. Ragna, though, knew from the sound of the horns that had just blared overhead that the rest of the alliance was moving in. Injuries aside, his off-the-cuff plan had succeeded so far; all that was left was to take his first shot to finish Kayuu off. And while he wasn't really sandbagging against her, exactly, he honestly didn't want to kill her if he didn't have to.

Kayuu shifted to the left slightly, then darted forward again, swinging her halberd low to cut at Ragna's feet. Ragna's response was to jump up and forward, then slash downward with Blood-Scythe. He easily cleared Kayuu's attack, but his counterattack was met by one of the silver bracers around her wrists; she'd taken one hand off her weapon to block him, but if he had put more force into the strike it likely would have cut right through it.

Both fighters retreated, and regarded each other warily; then, Kayuu's brows drew together and a look of scornful anger crossed her face. "I won't let you look down on me," Kayuu muttered. "You're holding back!"

Ragna rolled his shoulders and turned the right side of his body toward her, but didn't answer, simply narrowing his eyes. Taking his silence as admission, Kayuu roared angrily and charged straight at Ragna once again. When she swung her halberd down, Ragna blocked it, then kicked at her leg with as much force as he could muster. The steel plating of his boot smashed into her limb with a painful thwack, and Kayuu squawked in indignation and agony as she fell down to the ground. Without hesitation, Ragna spun Blood-Scythe back into a reverse grip and thrust it down at her prone form.

However, despite all appearances, he did not aim at her head, but at the ground next to it. Blood-Scythe crunched as its tip sunk into the dirt, and Ragna himself let out an annoyed sigh.

"What the hell are you doing, you bastard?" Kayuu whispered.

"Your leg's already too screwed up for you to keep fighting," he said. "Far as I'm concerned, I've beaten you. That, and right about now, the rest of the alliance should be kicking down the door at Sishui Pass. We're done here."

Kayuu snarled and rolled into a crouching position. From there, she attempted to stand, but stumbled the moment that she tried to put weight on her injured leg. Gritting her teeth, she smacked her halberd into the ground and forced herself all the way up. Ragna pulled Blood-Scythe loose with ease, and watched her stare hatefully at him. "I'm not going to lose to you," she said, her voice still quiet and low. "I don't care if your alliance makes it to the goddamn gate or not. I refuse to lose to you, and I refuse to let you look down on me like that! I'll kill you and throw your head at that bitch Kan'u myself!" Then, despite the tears of pain welling up in her eyes, she took a step forward, swinging her halberd in a horizontal arc meant to lop Ragna's head off. "Die!"

She was so blinded by fury and agony that she didn't realize that she'd given Ragna a prime opportunity to attack her, but the attack itself was slow and cumbersome. It was easy for him to step forward and to the side, and from there, punch her directly in the chest with his left hand, harder than before.

Kayuu choked as she felt bones break under his fist, and her hands twitched open, dropping her halberd mid-swing. She stared at him with her eyes set in a hateful glare, but could do little more than collapse to her knees, then fall over as the white-hot pain raced out from her injured sternum.

Ragna stared down at her dispassionately for a moment, then sighed. "Shit. I still don't like to fight women. I'm gonna catch hell for this later." He bent down and slung Kayuu over his right shoulder, then switched Blood-Scythe to his other hand. Though his cut from earlier was still stinging a bit, it was slowly starting to seal itself shut thanks to his regeneration. He looked around, and sure enough, what few groups were still fighting around him had stopped altogether, just in time to see his resounding victory over Kayuu.

Without acknowledging looked over to her flag, which had been planted into the ground next to a dead soldier. His was still flying high, but it too was no longer moving, and had likely been planted into the ground. Quietly, he walked over to it, stepping around the dead bodies, and sliced it in half with Blood-Scythe. Then, he cleared his throat, and raised his voice. "Kayuu has been defeated by Ragna of Zhuo! Give up or run away, I don't give a shit, but either way, you'll die if you keep fighting! So what's it gonna be?"

* * *

Two hours later, Sishui Pass fell completely to the anti-Toutaku Alliance, as word spread of Kayuu's defeat and her forces fell into gradual disarray.

Within another three, the anti-Toutaku Alliance was marching on Hulao Pass.

* * *

_There is a time and a place to humble an enemy at your mercy. Oftentimes, the defeat itself is humbling enough; to take it one step farther than is necessary gives your enemy a shame that will spur them to see you dead at all costs._

* * *

_Proverb 5: There Is A Time And A Place To Humble An Enemy At Your Mercy_

* * *

_Sorry about missing last week's update, but I was struggling with whether or not I wanted to kill Kayuu, and how I would handle the scene either way, and that kind of held things up. I'm not entirely satisfied with it, but I think that there's enough there for me to segue into a good scene later as a result. __I also wanted to throw in another bonus story to check in with Ryuubi and Houtou, but it's not coming together very well. Hopefully that will show up next chapter._

_Since it kind of came up in a review, I'll say this: all of the "proverbs" that are used as chapter titles are original expressions that I've made up. They usually relate to the actual chapter content in some way, but there will probably be one or two that are kind of botched._

_I won't have a lot of time to write this week so I may miss next Sunday's update. Hopefully that won't be the case, but I can't make any promises._

_Next week: Proverb 6, "The Thirst For Victory Can Be Blinding"._

_Until then, take care._

_~ZS_


	7. Proverb 6

**Henan Province, Sishui Pass**

**Seven months, two weeks, and one day after the prophesied arrival of the Messenger of Heaven**

**Directly after the battle of Sishui Pass**

After Kayuu's defeat, Kan'u had gone to the front lines to help the other members of the alliance attack the fortress itself, and Chouhi had followed behind her. From there, it had taken another two hours to clear the entire place out, and in that time she had not seen hide nor hair of Ragna, which only worried her more and more as time went on. Ultimately, though, her fear was dispelled when a soldier approached her in the fortress and informed her that Ragna had been spotted outside of Sishui, riding with Sousou and Sonken. Though confused by how he had wound up with them, Kan'u quickly left the fortress and went to go meet them, with Chouhi and Shoukatsuryou following closely behind her.

When they got outside, they understood what had happened immediately; Ragna was riding toward Sishui on Cerberus's back, and lying on his shoulder was none other than an unconscious Kayuu.

"What?" Kan'u whispered, staring blankly at the sight. "Who is that...?"

Chouhi puffed out her lips, and made a thoughtful humming sound. "She must be important if big bro is carrying her himself. And she looks like she lost a fight. A really nasty one."

Kan'u's eyes widened. "Could it be...might that woman be Kayuu?"

In about a minute or two, Ragna and Cerberus were standing in front of Kan'u, Chouhi, and Shoukatsuryou. The lord of Xizang looked down at his subjects with a tired smirk, and tapped Cerberus' flanks lightly with his free hand. The horse immediately knelt down, allowing Ragna to dismount with ease and shift Kayuu on his shoulder as he addressed them. It was clear from the scratches on his face and the damage to his clothing that he had been in quite a fight, but if Kayuu's condition was any indication, he had given as good as he'd gotten, if not more.

"Hey, girls," he said, waving with his free hand. "Sorry about the wait. I was picking up a visitor, so to speak."

"Lord Ragna, is that woman who I think she is?" Kan'u asked. Her Green Dragon Blade quivered a bit in her right hand, due in no small part to how intensely she was gripping it.

Ragna shrugged as Cerberus stood back up and shook out his mane. "If you think she's Kayuu, you'd be right."

Shoukatsuryou pushed her hat up slightly on her head and gave Ragna the most wide-eyed look he'd seen on her face yet; if he had to guess she was probably trying to decide whether she wanted to shout at him or congratulate him.

Chouhi laughed, breaking out into a huge grin. "As expected from big bro. Always so cool~"

Kan'u just settled for gaping like a fish until she could finally get her tongue to form words. "Lord Ragna, you can't be serious! She's an enemy general! The only thing you should have done to her was take her head! Why did you capture her?"

Ragna shook his head. "Far as I'm concerned, beating her was enough; by the time we were done fighting, she was basically going to go down anyway. Besides that, we might be able to get her to squeal about what's going on in Hulao Pass and in Luoyang."

As Kan'u continued to splutter, Sousou and Sonken approached; both women were on horseback, and unlike Ragna, were fairly pristine. Though Sonken merely nodded as she passed by, Sousou couldn't help but speak up. "I doubt that Kayuu will be willing to betray Toutaku, but she's your prisoner after all. You can do what you like with her, Ragna."

It was then that Ragna noticed that though the small blonde empress of Go was looking at him with her usual smirk, something about her expression was actually less scornful than usual. Then, the moment passed, and Sousou turned back to Sishui Pass. "I'll give you and your forces about an hour and a half to rest, and I've already sent spies ahead to gather some information. If there are any other prisoners that your men have taken, deal with them however you like. We'll have a war council after the rest period is over, and we'll begin marching after that, it's only just hit high noon, and we can probably make it to Hulao in a half-hour's time."

"That's fine," Ragna said. "We'll be ready."

Sousou raised a hand in response without looking backward, and urged her horse onward with a click of her tongue. Kan'u stared off in her direction for a moment more, then looked back to Ragna, allowing her full indignation to show now that Sousou was out of sight. "Lord Ragna, do you really think that Kayuu would be willing to betray her liege lord because you spared her? She won't tell us anything."

Ragna clenched his free hand into a fist. "Even if she doesn't, I had her beat. I didn't have a reason to kill her, all right? What's wrong with being a little merciful?"

"There's a difference between being merciful and being foolish, Lord Ragna," Kan'u replied. "I want you to tell me what was so different about Kayuu than all those other Luoyang soldiers that both you and I cut down today, aside from her ability to fight. I want to know why you spared her!"

Ragna's voice could have ground glass, and he turned back to Sishui, taking several firm steps away. "Now is not the time for this conversation."

Kan'u strode forward and cut him off, her black ponytail swaying as she glared up at Ragna. "Lord Ragna, it's one thing to risk your life in a regular battle. But your mercy nearly got you killed by Kayuu. I hardly think it fair that you refuse to share why you would spare her!"

That was the last straw for Ragna, and the answer flew out before he could stop himself. "Because she's a woman! I don't like to fight women and I don't like to kill them either!"

Chouhi and Shoukatsuryou both flinched at that, not just because of how loudly he'd said it but because of _what_ he had said. Kan'u was no less taken aback, but Ragna did not give her a chance to recover herself; he kept talking, his gloomy expression only got more and more severe. "Kayuu was a good fight. A fun fight. And when I beat her, I didn't feel like I had to kill her. I know it's hypocritical because I spared her for something stupid like that, when I've killed a bunch of other people for way less shit than what she did to me." After saying that, Ragna shook his head, then looked at Kan'u, then Chouhi, then Shoukatsuryou. "Regardless, the chance was there, so I took it. That a good enough answer for you, Aisha?"

Kan'u did not miss the insulted bite in Ragna's tone, and nodded quietly, realizing that she had perhaps crossed a line. "It is, Lord Ragna."

Ragna turned away from them, shifting Kayuu on his shoulder again. "Then go find the troops and start following that shrimp's suggestions. I wasn't keeping exact count, but we got pretty fucked up in this last fight from what I could see. We can't afford to be fussy about where our new numbers come from if we can be sure that they're not going to turn on us in the middle of the fight. When I'm done with Kayuu, I'll come find you. I expect a status report then."

Kan'u instinctively lowered her head, even though Ragna was no longer looking at her. "Yes, Lord Ragna."

The soles of Ragna's shoes crunched harshly against the rough ground as he continued toward Sishui Pass once again. Chouhi and Shoukatsuryou looked at Kan'u with worried frowns as her head dropped lower, and her body began to shake. "You're dismissed."

"Yes, Lord Ragna," Kan'u whispered.

* * *

**One hour later**

When Kayuu finally woke up, she found herself staring up into a clear, blue sky with only the barest cloud cover. With a groan, she sat up, shaking her head with pained sluggishness, and tried to press a hand to her temple, only to realize that her hands were quite firmly tied together behind her. Her eyes immediately snapped open all the way, and she began to struggle against her bonds with several curses as she looked around. By the looks of it, she was on top of the ramparts of Sishui, and when she looked down at the ground on the eastern side of the pass, where the anti-Toutaku alliance had come from, she could see both dead bodies and discarded weapons.

"We lost?" Kayuu whispered, feeling her shoulders sag. "Damn it. It can't be..." She winced, and looked down at her leg. It had been cleanly bandaged, but was also firmly splinted; she could pull it in or push it out as she wanted to, but she was fairly certain that trying to walk would not end well. "Yue. Ei, Shia and Ren...they were counting on me. I let them down."

Ragna's voice responded to her from behind. "Yeah, sorry. I know you're probably pissed, but it happened. Your guys freaked out the moment you went down."

Immediately, Kayuu wriggled and struggled until she managed to turn her body completely around to face Ragna. He was sitting on the parapet, and his head was turned in Kayuu's direction. She didn't know whether to be relieved or insulted that there was no real emotion on his face as he looked at her, but she did know that either way, she was still extremely pissed off at him. "You've got a lot of nerve, asshole," Kayuu retorted, hiding the hurt in her heart with anger. "You refused to take me seriously, then you knocked me out and captured me. What's your problem?"

Ragna slid off of the parapet and landed on the stones of Sishui's ramparts with a small grunt. "I _was_ taking you seriously, you idiot. I just didn't feel like I had to kill you after the way I beat you. That, and it was a good fight. I enjoyed it, so out of respect for your skill, I decided not to kill you like a stinking animal." His face clouded over as his eyebrows drew closer together. "Now, let's talk business. I want to know who or what is waiting for us at Hulao Pass."

Kayuu spat at Ragna's feet and closed her hazel eyes. "Like I'd tell you anything. Did you really think that a general would sell out her own country that easily?"

The spittle landed directly on the toe of Ragna's shoe, but he ignored it and walked a few steps closer to her. "I didn't. We're gonna take Hulao and Luoyang one way or another."

Kayuu's eyes snapped open again, and she stared hatefully at Ragna. "You sound pretty confident about that, scum. Do you really think your little club here is going to conquer the capital when you haven't even gotten through Hulao?"

"I don't think we are," Ragna said. "I _know_ we are." He folded his arms. "Look at who we've got on our team. Sousou of Gi. Sonken of Go. Kousonsan of Ryousei. Hell, Bachou the Splendid is running around in one of our side units, and I've got the Green Dragon Blade of Youzhou under my personal command. Do you really think that whoever you've got at Hulao Pass is going to stop us?"

Kayuu's frown slowly became an angry, confident sneer in reply, and Ragna eyed her carefully. If she was bluffing him, he had no idea if she was delusional or if Toutaku actually had the combat equivalent of a pinch-hitter waiting for them up ahead. His stoic silence in the face of her confidence made Kayuu's temper flare again, and she felt her hands tighten into fists behind her back. "You've already captured me, you insufferable bastard," she shouted. "I'm not going to tell you anything about Hulao or Luoyang. What do you want from me?"

"To be honest," Ragna said, shrugging again, "nothing, really. Like I said, you don't wanna talk, that's fine. Probably just gonna keep you as a prisoner of war."

"So then," Kayuu replied, "I'm a trophy for you to parade around." She snorted. "For all that talk about how noble you are, you're really just scum, aren't you?"

Ragna shook his head and bent down. He put his hands firmly on Kayuu's back and slung her over his shoulder, ignoring the awkward squawk that he forced out of her by doing so. She did notice, however, that he was careful to avoid jostling her injured leg as he walked toward the stairs that would take them back down into the fortress. "I never claimed to be noble," he said, "and I think it would've been more scummy to kill you while you were lying on your back."

As she grudgingly admitted the truth of his words, the warmth of the sun gradually stopped hitting Kayuu's cheeks as Ragna descended down the staircase. She couldn't see what was in front of them, but going by the look and the smell of the stones around them, she figured that they were going down the northern staircase. "At any rate," he said. "you're in no condition to fight or run, so I'm gonna leave you with a guard when we attack. I'm giving you a choice—join our side, or get locked up. Think about it and give me an answer before we go kick down the gates at Luoyang."

When they got to the base of the stairs and emerged into the third-floor hallway, Kayuu asked, "Why even give me a choice?"

Ragna kept walking down the hall as if he hadn't heard her, but right before she could (rather angrily) repeat herself, he said, "Because I want to. Isn't that enough?"

"Like hell it is!" Kayuu snapped. "How the hell is a jackass like you so important with such a half-ass attitude?"

Ragna smirked, and rolled his free shoulder. "I'm good at what I do."

* * *

While Ragna was having that conversation, Sousou was waiting outside of Sishui with Kakouton, Kakouen, and Jun'iku. They were positioned at the western gate, watching the horizon with no particular expressions on their face; soon enough, though, they could see a group of men approaching them from the west. A bird with a red handkerchief flew up into the air not long after that, and Sousou allowed herself a smirk. "Good. They've got something interesting to tell us."

Ten minutes later, the head of the group, a man dressed in the indigo colors of the Gi livery, bowed at Sousou's feet. The mixed group of other spies nodded and showed their respect as well, but Sousou paid them no mind, looking instead at the top of the leader's head.

"Well? What do you have to report?" she asked.

"It seems that there was word of our victory at Sishui," the man replied. "There are soldiers mustering outside of Hulao Pass, under the flags Chou and Ryo. We weren't able to get much closer, so we have no idea what exactly the troop count is. However, Hulao Pass is most definitely the same size as Sishui Pass, so if their numbers are larger, it's likely that they're waiting for us past the wall."

Sousou rubbed her chin, then turned to Jun'iku. "Do you know of any generals by the name Chou and Ryo?"

Jun'iku frowned deeply, then nodded. "Yes, Lady Karin. The names that come to mind are Bun'en Chouryou and Housen Ryofu. From what I've heard, they're highly skilled warriors, easily capable of taking on most normal soldiers without trying. In a sense, they could be called an even match to Kan'u or Kakouton."

Kakouton couldn't help but frown angrily at that; considering that she had yet to resolve her bitterness toward Ragna, hearing of another rival did not make her very happy. "Hmph. Sounds like nothing but hearsay, Keifa."

"And even if it is, you would be wise to heed it," Jun'iku snapped. "My plan ensured that the fool from Zhuo took the brunt of the losses, but I doubt he's so foolish as to let that happen again. If that's the case, it is likely our forces that will need to hold the line. "

"Are you certain of that, Keifa?" Sousou said. "He may not be a complete fool, but Ragna's pride is easily wounded. It would not be hard to bait him again."

Jun'iku's scowl grew larger, but she had the sense to face forward and not at Sousou. "If you want to lose his support for the attack on Hulao and on Luoyang proper, then yes, it would be quite easy, Lady Karin. As strong as we are, we cannot afford to lose the strength of even one army at this point."

Sousou sighed. "You're right. We cannot." She looked toward Sishui, and folded her arms. "We'll need to hold the war council, and decide there. Personally, I have no objection to what you just proposed, Keifa; we have the men to pull it off, especially since Ragna's forces absorbed most of the casualties. However, if we become overconfident, we'll lose." She stroked her chin, then nodded. "Keifa, come with me. Shuuran, Shunran, take stock of our troops and make sure they're taken care of."

"As you wish, Lady Karin," Kakouton said, bowing; Kakouen and Jun'iku did the same, and moved to do as they were told.

* * *

A few minutes later, the leaders were gathered yet again in a conference. Ragna was scowling quietly, but was not actively directing malice at anyone nearby. Shoukatsuryou stood next to him with a sad frown on her face, and did not make any particular effort to face him or any of the other leaders. Sonken watched him with a vaguely concerned look on her face, as did Ryomou, while Enshou rolled her eyes and folded her arms and Kousonsan rubbed her arm awkwardly. Sousou, being Sousou, noticed Ragna's disquiet, but out of deference to the aggravated look on his face, decided not to needle him about it. Instead, she asked, "Was Kayuu cooperative?"

"Nope," Ragna said. "Keeping her as a prisoner for now, since I basically broke her leg in half. From the way she reacted though, she's pretty confident that we're gonna lose."

"I suppose that's not entirely unfounded," Sousou replied, letting out a small sigh. "We've heard that our opponents are the generals Chouryou and Ryofu. They've got a reputation that matches yours or Kan'u's. They're not to be underestimated."

"Then what's your plan for dealing with them?" Sonken asked. "Attacking Hulao head on isn't going to work, but if they know we're coming, then we have no advantages. I have no intention of risking my troops for an operation that hasn't been planned out correctly."

"Then we'll have to fight smarter, not harder," Sousou said. She closed her eyes, tapping her pointer finger against her chin, then smiled and nodded, still keeping her eyes shut. "We'll have to cut the head off of the snake. Chouryou and Ryofu will need to be defeated or captured, as our first priority. It'll be a repeat of tactics, but it'll be the best we can do in this situation."

"But is it feasible?" Shoukatsuryou asked. "Kayuu is one thing, but both Chouryou and Ryofu...if they're supposedly a match for Kan'u or Lord Ragna, then that job will be more than a little difficult. Even Lord Ragna was wounded by Kayuu before he managed to subdue her."

"Then they will have to die. It's that simple." Sousou gave Shoukatsuryou a cutting look, but relented when she realized that she was agitating Ragna, going by the slightly more hostile expression on his face. "At any rate, we will need the strongest forces as the vanguard so that there will be enough time to kill Chouryou and Ryofu. If anyone else wishes to stand at my side at the vanguard, they are welcome to do so. Even you, Ragna."

"Hell of a way to invite someone along for some bonding time," Ragna replied. "At any rate, screw that. Zhuo's taken enough losses today. We'll take the middle guard." He looked around at the rest of the group. "Someone else wanna step up to our leader's generous offer?"

Kousonsan nodded. "I'm more than willing to go. It shouldn't be any problem for my men."

"Nor is it a problem for mine," Sonken said. "In theory, we would be better suited to the task than you, Kousonsan. Our numbers are greater than yours. However, I will allow Sousou to make that decision."

Enshou sniffed, clearly annoyed at being left out of the conversation, but said, "I'll take the rear guard, then, if there are no other roles left to be filled."

Sousou nodded again. "I'll take Sonken to the front. Kousonsan will reinforce Zhuo as the middle guard. Enshou will serve as the rear guard. Any objections?" Everyone looked back at Sousou without responding, and she waved a hand around, turning her back to them. "Then go and prepare. We're moving out in a half hour."

After a round of nods, the group broke up and headed off to their respective camps. Sousou sighed and put a hand to her mouth, hiding her smile. Jun'iku cast a concerned glance in Sousou's direction, but the empress of Gi ignored the troubled expression on Jun'iku's face. "I wanted to see Ragna fight myself. Secondhand reports are hardly interesting, and there's only so much one can see through a telescope."

Jun'iku scowled at that. "I know you're interested in breaking him, Lady Karin, but now you make it sound as if you might be interested in going farther than that. That would be a terrible mistake."

Sousou's face hardened into her "bored" mask as she looked over to Jun'iku. "I am well aware of what I want, Keifa. You do not need to warn me away from him."

The unspoken rebuke caused Jun'iku to bow her head and turn away. She stared at the brown, grass-less earth with a slightly lighter frown, cursing the fact that Ragna even existed in this world to tempt and distract Sousou the way he was. "I understand, Lady Karin. Pardon me."

* * *

**Twenty minutes later**

**Outside the main gates of Hulao Pass**

Three people, backed up by a sea of men in black, fur-trimmed armor, stood in front of the entrance to Hulao Pass.

Those men held up many many flags, marked with the characters for either "Chou" and "Ryo" respectively, with pride and poise, even as the wind rippled the cloth.

One of the three people was the infamous Housen Ryofu, a dark-skinned girl with violet eyes. Her hair was a reddish-purple color, and it was cut to just above shoulder level, with two thin strands emerging from the top. She wore a sleeveless top that was black on the right side and white on the left, and matching detached sleeves that covered her arms from the elbow down, as well as a purple scarf. Under the sweeping black skirt that she wore around her waist, she had on a plain white skirt, and her outfit was completed by a pair of black stockings and firm, violet-black boots. Her shoulders and midriff were bare, marked with matching purple tattoos, and all the cloth on her body that was not her sleeves, her underskirt, or her shirt were ragged-edged. Both of her hands were wrapped in white bandages, and a halberd with a black shaft was clenched in her right hand; the head was black with a round red jewel set in the center, and the two blades that made up the head were attached to it at the front.

The tallest of the three people was Bun'en Chouryou, a slim and busty woman with calm green eyes and a black band around her neck. She wore a pale blue jacket, trimmed with white lace, over her shoulders, with a red tie linking the two sides just below her collarbone. Her hair was purple and pulled up into a wild bun of sorts at the very back, complete with a dark spiked barrette holding it up from the bottom; it was styled into two distinct forelocks, far enough apart to expose her forehead, while a tuft of hair stood straight up right between those two forelocks. She wore no top, and her breasts were wrapped up with bandages; a set of purple straps went down both of her arms, and the back of each hand was covered by a studded metal plate. She wore a samurai's loose purple hakama pants, with a long sash around her waist that was tied in the front, as well as wooden geta sandals. She carried a perfect duplicate of Kan'u's own Green Dragon Crescent Blade in her right hand, albeit with a black dragon at the head and blue ribbons.

The last of the three people was a girl, Koudai Chinkyuu, and she stood very close to Ryofu, her arms folded tightly across her chest. Her hair was light green, tied into two low pigtails. She wore a white Chinese shirt and black shorts, as well as a black Chinese cap marked with a panda and yellow-and-white striped stockings. As she looked between her companions, she tapped her black boots against the ground and huffed in annoyance; the tails of her black overcoat, and the gold-trimmed white muffler that she wore over that, blew backward in a slight wind that passed by them. Her frown softened when she looked up at Ryofu, but only a little bit.

Chouryou looked to her right and smiled lightly at Ryofu. "Hey, Ren. How are you holding up over there?"

Ryofu responded with a long, drawn-out hum. Then, she spoke in a voice that was soft, yet filled with cutting anger. "...Tired of waiting."

Chouryou sighed and scratched her head. "Still upset about what happened to Shiina, huh?"

"Of course she is!" Chinkyuu replied hotly. "I am too! That sneering bastard had the nerve to call himself the Messenger of Heaven to begin with, and then he killed her! There's no way in hell that me or Ren would forgive someone like that!"

Ryofu nodded, and after a few more moments, spoke again. "...He is my enemy." Her eyes narrowed, and though she looked like she was sulking when she looked in Chouryou's direction, the curling of her lip gave away her true feelings. "Shia. Don't get in the way."

"I don't plan on it, Ren," Chouryou replied. Her loud and boisterous voice softened significantly, taking on a serious edge. "I'm mad about what he did to Shiina too, you know? She was kind of a grouch, yeah, but she was still our comrade." Her small, easygoing smile hardened somewhat. "If it wasn't for the fact that Kan'u's fighting on the field today, I probably would go after that Messenger of Heaven myself."

The news had come in about more than an hour ago, from some of the soldiers that had managed to survive the battle at Sishui Pass and report to Hulao. According to them, Shiina—Kayuu—had gone missing after about two or three hours of fighting, and her flag had been cut down as well. The soldiers had also reported that the last person seen fighting against Kayuu had been Ragna, and so it was relatively easy for them to make the connection. Ryofu had immediately locked her face into the hard, half-lidded stare that was on her face right now, and had yet to relax it in the slightest as she kept staring toward the horizon. She wasn't the introspective type to begin with, but she knew for sure what she was feeling despite that limitation.

She wanted to fight, more than she had ever wanted to do anything before.

It was strange to feel so worked up, especially about fighting. It was nothing special for her to fight anymore. She'd been doing it for as long as she had drawn breath, with anything and everything that was at hand. It had gotten to the point where she didn't need to think about swinging her spear, or dodging blows. All she did was move, and everything else came naturally. However, right now, as she stood at the front lines, she wanted to fight so badly that she could almost swear she was starving to death.

Chouryou, meanwhile, simply gripped her "Flying Dragon Crescent Blade" even tighter, and followed Ryofu's gaze as the front line of the anti-Toutaku alliance approached. She'd been waiting for this chance for a long, long time, ever since she had heard of Kan'u's skills and power. Part of her wished that this fight didn't have to have so much riding on it—Toutaku was depending on her, and Kayuu needed to be avenged. If Hulao fell, then there would be no last line of defense for Luoyang. If Hulao fell, Toutaku would die. _And I'm not going to let her die for a farce,_ Chouryou thought, clenching her left hand into a fist. _That girl is too gentle, and too kind. She shouldn't have been drawn into this in the first place. Those white-clothed bastards..._

The pain of her nails pressing into her palm brought Chouryou out of her angry thoughts, and she realized that it was time to funnel that anger into something productive. "Yue needs us," she said aloud, her voice regaining her loud, confident sound. "So does Ei, even though she wouldn't admit it." She looked at Ryofu and Chinkyuu, then nodded once, smiling proudly. "So do your best to beat him, Ren, but don't be afraid to run if it looks like things are going to get bad. Better to live to fight again than die."

Chinkyuu nodded and clenched her fists. "Ren will be fine! I'll guide her right to that Messenger bastard and watch her cut his heart out!"

Ryofu nodded as well, but said nothing, keeping her eyes forward. Soon, the horizon and the dusty plains were clearly covered in soldiers, and her eyes were automatically searching for one specific flag.

"Revenge," Ryofu whispered. "For Shiina."

* * *

Sousou sighed as Hulao Pass came into view, and with it, the legions of soldiers that gathered under the command of Ryofu, Chouryou, and Chinkyuu. Kakouton and Kakouen flanked her, while Jun'iku stood behind them. Sonken and her entourage were further off to the right, while Ragna and Kousonsan's armies were behind them, and Enshou's army was farther back still with the other minor lords.

Gi's group had one more addition, though, a small girl with rose-colored hair that was styled into two high pigtails. Each one was made up of two tightly composed buns and a spiky burst of hair, and one blue ribbon adorned the base of each pigtail. She wore a pink sleeveless shirt that exposed her midriff and short brown pants; like everyone else except for Jun'iku, she had on sleeves, blue in color, with ruffled white lace trimming the cuffs. She carried a silver mace on her back that resembled a ball-and-cup toy—albeit, a ball that was more like a mace, given all the spikes on it. Her name was Choukou Kyouchou, one of Kakouen's loyal subordinates and a surprisingly strong fighter for her age.

"My, my, but what a greeting," Sousou muttered. "They're serious, eh? Shunran, Shuuran, Keifa, Kii, be careful. The enemy will be far more desperate this time."

Kakouton rolled her shoulders, completely unburdened. The sword on her back was now in her left hand; it was long and crooked, with multiple sharp edges such that it barely resembled a sword. "And they'll get cut down all the same. Lady Karin, you don't need to worry."

Kyouchou giggled and nodded. "That's right, Lady Karin. Just leave everything to us, OK?"

Sousou looked at her soldiers, then allowed herself a smile. "Very well then. Keifa, you're with me. Shunran, Shuuran, Kii. Go together, leave some reserves behind you, and let the first wave come in. After that, make a few openings in our formations." The smile became her customary smirk. "I'll see for myself if there's anyone worth watching on this battlefield today."

"Yes, ma'am!" her generals responded.

* * *

From the middle of the formation, Ragna sighed and leaned forward slightly, pressing against Cerberus's back as the horse trotted forward. Kousonsan rode on the back of her own white horse beside him, while Kan'u, Chouhi, and Shoukatsuryou walked at Ragna's side. Up ahead, they could clearly hear the whistling of arrows and the clash of weapons against each other as Sousou and Sonken engaged the vanguard of Toutaku's forces. "Hate to say it, but it's kind of boring just being the middle guard," Ragna muttered to himself. "Still, if that bitch Sousou doesn't get the satisfaction of...well, anything, really, from us hanging back here, I'm fine with it."

"You really dislike her, eh, Ragna?" Kousonsan asked, stretching her neck. "I heard some rumors around camp saying that she tried to snatch up Kan'u. She's infamous for that—she's as lustful as she is intelligent, and being a better fighter only makes her more attracted to you, apparently."

Ragna shuddered and tried very hard to not think of Nu at that statement. "Definitely the last thing I needed was for her to watch me fight, then." He clicked his tongue and snorted. "Had enough of psycho women trying to jump my bones for two lifetimes."

Kan'u frowned, but refrained from asking what he meant by that. He had already proven sensitive to questions about his past before, and it was likely that he was still upset with her over the Kayuu debacle. Instead, she turned her attention forward again, and frowned as she noticed something that had escaped her before. "Sousou's line is growing weaker."

Shoukatsuryou blinked, then pulled out her telescope to analyze the front line better. "Hawawa? It is! What's going on?!"

"It's deliberate," Kan'u said, frowning angrily. "That slovenly woman isn't stupid enough to let something like that happen unless she wanted it that way."

"If they break through to us, I'm gonna kill Sousou later," Ragna replied. "I don't know why the hell she likes to test me so much, but it pisses me off. Somehow it seems like she keeps planning shit without telling any of us what she's up to, and then we get stuck holding the bag when she shows her hand. It's getting kind of tiring."

Kousonsan scratched her head. "I think the only reason she does is because she's interested in you. If she didn't find you appealing in some way, she probably wouldn't bother."

Ragna rolled his neck, cracking the joints ever so slightly. "Fucking lovely."

* * *

At that moment, Chinkyuu's eyes widened as she too saw the opening in the Gi formation. With a wide grin, she turned to Ryofu and pointed. "Ren! Shia! Over there! Break through that spot and you two will have a line straight to the middle guard!"

Chouryou smashed the butt of her Flying Dragon Blade into a Gi soldier's face, then looked in the direction that Chinkyuu pointed, as did Ryofu. Immediately, Chouryou grinned, and flashed a jaunty salute in Chinkyuu's direction. "Then I'll leave the army to you, Nene! If you think you can handle it, that is!"

Chinkyuu pounded her chest, then shouted, "Men! Hit the gap in the enemy line! Cover Generals Ryofu and Chouryou so that they can get in and show Zhuo what for!"

It was a waking hell as the two Luoyang generals tore through all the soldiers in their way, easily breaking through Sousou's line and making their way directly to Zhuo. Gi and Go soldiers alike screamed as the silvery flash of Ryofu and Chouryou's weapons flew back and forth among them. Ryofu in particular was simply brutal, scattering soldiers left and right with wild swings of her halberd, but she did not notice that many of them ducked out of the way of her attacks or just let her by altogether, not willing to risk their lives against her weapon.

Neither did Chouryou, who had fixed her eyes on the "Kan" flags that were flying just in front of them. She licked her lips, and opened her eyes wide, feeling tremors race up and down her body. It would soon be her time. Both vengeance against Zhuo and her desired battle with Kan'u were only moments away. With a laugh and a flourish of her blade, Chouryou charged forward, and soon enough, Ryofu approached her from the right side, matching her longer strides easily. In front of them were simply more enemies to fall to their blades, and behind them, their soldiers slowly and steadily continued their advance, beating back the Gi and Go soldiers inch by inch.

Then, all the noise and chaos of battle faded as they reached a clear expanse of ground with no soldiers. Zhuo's front line was still clearly in front of them, about a minute or so away. When they realized this, Chouryou and Ryofu gradually slowed down, and when they stopped, Chouryou took a moment to look behind her. To her satisfaction, a growing number of black-armored soldiers were spilling forward to meet them, even as the Zhuo army began to stop holding position and start moving forward.

"It's time, Ren," Chouryou said, facing forward and grinning as Zhuo's front line drew closer. "We've gotta hold the line so that Ragna and Kan'u come running to the fight. That'll be our chance to get them. Are you ready?"

Ryofu nodded once and made an annoyed moaning sound, keeping her eyes focused forward. Chouryou took it in stride and shook her head, smiling ferociously and licking her lips as the flags drew closer. "It's time. Come on, Kan'u!"

* * *

The moment Ragna saw the black-armored mass of soldiers appear at the front line, as well as Chouryou and Ryofu leading them, he snarled loudly enough to be mistaken for an actual wild animal. Kan'u immediately looked forward, and upon realizing just why he was angry, she gripped her Green Dragon Blade and grimaced. "Lord Ragna..."

"I'm going on ahead," Ragna said, cutting her off. "Those two in the front look damn dangerous." He looked at Kan'u, then the others. "Hakukei, Rinrin, Shuri, stay here. Keep the soldiers organized against the enemy. Aisha and I are going to go fight the enemy commanders."

"Do you want them captured or killed, Lord Ragna?" Kan'u asked, speaking very quietly.

"Whatever takes less effort," Ragna replied. He patted Cerberus's neck, and the horse stopped, allowing him to hop off and start walking forward. He drew Blood-Scythe and twisted it into his usual reverse grip, then stretched his neck out a couple of times and started to walk forward. Kan'u followed in his footsteps without much prompting. The soldiers between them and the front line moved out of their way without being told to move, and whispered small bits of encouragement as they advanced through the lines.

After about a minute or two, Ragna and Kan'u came out to the front of their army, and found themselves standing across from Chouryou and Ryofu. They could clearly see the Luoyang soldiers surging up behind the two enemy generals, carrying their battle-flags proudly. Immediately, Ryofu bristled and stared at Ragna, while Chouryou fixed Kan'u with a longing look and turned the right side of her body toward them, shifting her Flying Dragon Blade into a two-handed grip. Ragna snorted and spread his legs out, taking up his usual position to fight, and Kan'u did the same. "I assume you're Chouryou and Ryofu," Kan'u said, narrowing her eyes as she watched Chouryou's weapon. "You're bold to break through the line this far. You realize that if you lose here, you've basically doomed Hulao Pass, right?"

"Last I checked, yes, I was still Bun'en Chouryou," Chouryou replied. "And you said it yourself—that's _if _we lose, Kanny." She smirked broadly, noting the annoyance that crossed Kan'u's face when she heard the nickname, but eventually gained a far more serious, angry expression. "You shouldn't underestimate us, either, since your so-called lord decided to be cute and kill our good friend Shiina back at Sishui Pass. We'll pay you back for her death tenfold."

Ragna shook his head. "If you're talking about Kayuu, I didn't actually kill her." Chouryou stared at him for a moment, and Kan'u just nodded, carefully keeping her neutral expression fixed onto her face. "Regardless, you still wanna take revenge. I know how that shit goes." He watched Ryofu bend her knees and place the head of her halberd behind her. She was gripping the shaft of her weapon so hard he thought she was going to snap it in half. "If you hate me so much for what I did, kid, quit trying to look tough and bring it on."

Ryofu finally spoke again, but her voice was the most venomous hiss that Ragna had ever heard. "Die."

Then, she took three steps and a huge leap, swinging her weapon at him with both hands. Ragna's response to that was to take Blood-Scythe, flip it into a forward grip, and swing down vertically, knocking the head of Ryofu's weapon downward. However, he didn't manage to disarm her, and though he recovered quickly enough to step forward and punch at her, she ducked the blow, then swept her halberd upward, ripping up the right sleeve of Ragna's jacket and his undershirt almost exactly at the armpit. Ragna immediately jumped back, then clicked his tongue and shook off his torn sleeves, exposing the bindings wrapped around his fake arm.

"You're pretty tough, kid," he admitted. "But if that's all you got, you're not gonna beat me."

Ryofu spun her halberd around and shifted it into a two-handed grip once more, aiming the blade upward at Ragna's throat. "Weak. Quit talking. Fight."

Ragna rolled his neck and squeezed Blood-Scythe tighter, causing a brief spurt of black flames to come from his right hand. For the first time since the fight started, Ryofu looked briefly confused, but had no time to spare thinking about what exactly she'd seen, as Ragna then rushed in with a booming roar.

In contrast, Chouryou had not charged Kan'u, but was in a stalemate; the two were pacing in circles, staring straight at each other. Despite the unwieldiness of her sandals, Chouryou was keeping her footing rather easily, which genuinely surprised Kan'u even though she refused to let it show on her face; she was more concerned with the fact that Chouryou had copied her weapon so perfectly for no apparent reason. Then, she lost the time to care about that when Chouryou finally did rush in, using rapid, short slashes and thrusts to test her defense. With nothing but battle cries on her lips, Kan'u returned the favor, moving forward as she deflected the blows; once she was in range, she slashed at Chouryou's stomach, but failed to hit home as Chouryou used the middle of her Flying Dragon Blade to block the strike, and pushed Kan'u away with a triumphant grin. She then rushed forward again and thrust the Flying Dragon Blade much higher this time, and Kan'u managed to duck to the side just in time for it to cut her cheek instead of her throat.

"Come now, Kan'u, that can't be all you've got," Chouryou said quietly, dropping her hungry expression for a moment. "You're stronger than that."

Kan'u's eyes only narrowed a little more before she stepped forward, switching to a one-handed grip on her Green Dragon Blade. Chouryou frowned and prepared to block the incoming strike, but was unpleasantly surprised when Kan'u shifted to the side as she moved forward, then thrust the Green Dragon Blade at Chouryou's stomach with incredible speed. The resultant wound tore a fair gash into Chouryou's left side, just below her ribs, and she staggered back in shock as Kan'u ran in, unleashing more slashes and thrusts with mute, single-minded ferocity.

* * *

Meanwhile, at the Gi/Go frontline, things were progressing much better. Though Chinkyuu's strategies were top notch, and she'd managed to hold the line for a while after letting Chouryou and Ryofu go ahead into the rear lines, Kakouton's relentless assault, backed by Kakouen's supporting fire and Kyouchou and Kannei's flanking maneuvers, had forced the Luoyang forces farther and farther back. In fact, Kakouton herself finished cutting down another of Toutaku's soldiers when she began to see the group as a whole start pulling back toward Hulao. With an angry click of her tongue, she began to march forward, preparing to shout out the order to continue pressing forward, but stopped when she heard firm footsteps come up behind her and felt Kakouen's firm hand on her shoulder. "Sister, stop. We need time to regroup."

Kakouton rounded on her sister with a snarl on her lips. "Shuuran, now's not the time for this. We've got to keep pressing forward or Gi will lose the advantage to Go. Sonken and her soldiers are in just as much a position as we are to lead the final push into Hulao once we thin this crowd out. We have to aggressively secure our place."

"Not without soldiers and not without a plan," Kakouen replied. She reached up and rubbed some of the sweat from her brow with the back of her hand, then gave Kakouton a flat, serious stare. "Shunran, you can't be so impetuous. Do you want to die so badly?"

"I won't die as long as Lady Karin still has a need for my body to serve Gi," Kakouton said. She thrust her sword toward the enemy soldiers; the gates of Hulao Pass were a good five or ten minutes behind their current front line. "Give me twenty minutes with those fools and we'll have a clear shot to Hulao's gates. If we stop to regroup, that's twenty minutes that Sonken has to prepare herself to go in."

Kakouen's voice stayed low and calm while her tone grew sharper. "And we can stand to lose twenty minutes if it means that we have a plan going in."

With a short scoff, Kakouton shrugged off Kakouen's hand, and turned toward Hulao, storming forward. As she did so, she pitched her voice to carry to her nearby troops. "Sound the advancing horns! We're going to push forward to the gate!"

Kakouen sighed in frustration as Kakouton stormed forward, sword in hand, while the horns sounded exactly as she ordered. Her soldiers surged around her as she advanced, cutting down everyone that came close to her. Kakouen followed closely behind, feeling dread in the pit of her stomach that made her feel sicker than she ever had in her life.

Ultimately, when _it_ happened, neither Kakouton nor Kakouen anticipated it.

The only warning that anything was going to happen was the creak of a bowstring that neither of the Kakou sisters could hear, and the whistling of an arrow passing over the battlefield that was drowned out by the noise.

The glint of the arrowhead went unseen due to its height.

Then, that arrow dipped downward and lodged itself firmly into Kakouton's left eye socket with a solid thunk.

The force of the blow jerked Kakouton's head back, and after stepping back once or twice, she fell to one knee. She could feel a hot needle of pain driving itself into her skull more and more with every passing moment, and it took a supreme force of will to avoid breaking out into tears. There were too many people around for that to happen. In contrast, Kakouen stayed completely calm, at least externally, and raised her own bow, stringing and shooting an arrow in one fluid motion. Though she had only seen the arrow after impact, her own experience with the weapon made it too easy for her to get a fix on where it had probably come from, and so she hit the the archer in the back of the enemy formation that had just injured Kakouton, scoring a direct hit to his throat and sending his blood out in a fine mist.

With a slow, pained hiss, Kakouton struggled to her feet again. Her left hand was placed over her injured eye, allowing the shaft to peek through her fingers. Kakouen lowered her bow, and began to walk toward Kakouton with clear worry in her eyes, if nowhere else. However, before Kakouen reached Kakouton, Kakouton stomped her foot against the ground and clenched her right hand around the handle of her sword.

"Foolish," Kakouton whispered to herself, before speaking again. "Did you seriously think that this would be enough?" Her voice was pitched to carry, and despite the unbearable pain drilling into the left side of her skull, she didn't dare flinch. "All you brave Gi soldiers, look at me and listen carefully! For the sake of Gi, for the sake of Lady Karin, I will sacrifice everything. This body my parents gave me and this soul that Heaven gave to me are both tools to be used for her glory!"

She wrapped her left around the shaft of the arrow and pulled it out in one solid motion, revealing her eyeball skewered on it. Without even hesitating, she put it to her mouth, opened wide, and ate her eyeball in several swift bites, swallowing with ease. When she finished, she wiped her mouth with the back of her left hand. "An eye is nothing," Kakouton shouted. "For the glory of Gi...for the glory of Lady Karin...an eye, an arm, a leg, even my life...they don't mean anything! And so it should be for all of you!" She tossed the arrow to the ground and stared forward, keeping her left eye covered with her hand even as tears of blood began to leak down her face. "You should never fear the loss of anything so long as it is given in the name of your kingdom of Gi!" The Gi soldiers watching all of this stared in awe at Kakouton, but only Kakouen noticed the slight tremor in her sword hand. She was trying to hide her fear and her pain with a partially-feigned show of angry bravado. "Now go forward! Show these dogs of Toutaku what real men of valor look like!"

A hellish roar rose up from the Gi soldiers, and in a wave of purple rage they crashed against Toutaku's soldiers. With all eyes off of her, Kakouton finally allowed her remaining eye to close as well, and after a moment, a low, weak sob escaped her lips. It was only quiet enough for Kakouen to hear, and was more than enough to spur her to stand next to Kakouton and gently squeeze her shoulder. "Sister, are you all right?"

Kakouton nodded mutely, and Kakouen signaled a nearby soldier, one of the couriers. "Get me a clean cloth and an eyepatch for General Kakouton's face. Then inform Lady Sousou of what's happened! Move quickly!"

The soldier saluted and moved off, allowing Kakouen to soften her voice as she spoke to Kakouton again. "You're brave, sister. I...hadn't expected you to go that far."

Kakouton shook her head, and chuckled bitterly. "I hadn't expected to lose an eye, so I suppose today is just a surprising sort of day." She turned to fully face Kakouen, and finally let her left hand drop. Since her eye had been open at the time, her eyelids were undamaged and the eye itself appeared closed; however, blood still leaked from it, crawling down her face and chin. "To be completely honest, though, I'm angry. Very, very angry." She gripped her sword and took an unsteady step forward, then frowned harshly and took another, more confident one. "I feel like exercising that anger on a few of those swine."

"Shunran, please. At least wait until we get your eye..."

Kakouton shook her head and kept walking, her steps growing steadier as she continued to move forward. Despite her misgivings, Kakouen couldn't help but shake her head and follow after her, but this time, her eyes were focused high, on the off chance that something else unpleasant might happen. Stirring speeches or not, seeing a general go down twice in one day would do nothing but completely destroy morale.

* * *

Of course, Ragna and Kan'u knew nothing about any of this, because they were far too busy continuing to fight against Ryofu and Chouryou. Time itself had been the deciding factor in how the fights had progressed; Ragna and Ryofu were still clashing against each other violently enough that sparks flew from their blades with every clash, but Kan'u and Chouryou's fight was already winding down, as Chouryou's injury had slowed her down considerably.

Kan'u let out a weary huff as she blocked another of Chouryou's strikes, and winced as the shock from the blow shook her arms. Before she could recover, though, Chouryou surged forward again and slashed downward, tagging Kan'u's upper right arm with a moderately deep cut. Kan'u flinched, and her guard dropped just enough for Chouryou to attack again, this time cutting into Kan'u's left shoulder. Chouryou allowed herself a ragged laugh, then hissed as her wound flared again, forcing her to stop her aggressive push forward.

"You're as good as they said, Kan'u," Chouryou said. It took a supreme effort for her to straighten up and stand properly, but she managed it, and grinned widely. Her skin was glistening with sweat, and she was panting slightly as the blood dribbled from the wound on her side. "I'm having quite a bit of fun; you've earned your reputation quite well."

Kan'u let out a quiet, ragged breath in reply, and assessed herself. Her new wounds were starting to hurt more, and her cheek still stung from where Chouryou had cut it. By the looks of it, Chouryou was in worse shape despite only having the one wound; her bluster aside, she was clearly fighting through some degree of pain. _Then the last blow will be the end of it,_ Kan'u thought, putting a bit more weight on her rear leg. Chouryou noticed this and prepared herself as well.

In the next breath, Chouryou made the mistake of blinking, and in that single moment, Kan'u pushed off of her rear foot and rushed in, stepping too close for Chouryou to slash or thrust at her. Chouryou gasped, but couldn't step backward quickly enough to try and counterattack, and when Kan'u attacked, it was with a clean vertical slice that split open the bandages around Chouryou's breasts and even the upper part of her stomach. Chouryou managed to gasp, then stumbled back, falling over without a word as the pain raced down her chest. Either by design or mistake, she managed to catch herself before she completely collapsed, gripping the Flying Dragon Blade as tightly as she could while wobbling back and forth in a drunken squat.

Kan'u stood in front of Chouryou and looked down with an impassive frown. "Do you yield?"

Chouryou blinked, and stared into Kan'u's flinty amber eyes. "Are you serious?"

"Lord Ragna left it to my discretion as to how to dispatch you. Considering that we left Kayuu alive, I felt it appropriate to ask you if you wanted to yield before killing you. Now, do you yield?"

Chouryou saw no weakness in that stance, nor any attempts to deceive or redirect her attention. Kan'u meant what she said, and would probably kill Chouryou the moment that she felt justified in doing so. Under normal circumstances, surrendering would be the worst option for Chouryou, and she would have rejected it out of hand. But these weren't normal circumstances; Kan'u had reiterated what Ragna had said earlier in regards to Kayuu's survival, and was offering Chouryou a chance to survive and possibly confirm that statement for herself.

With a bitter sigh, Chouryou nodded. "I yield."

Kan'u promptly put her blade to Chouryou's throat, and turned away from the captured general, focusing her attention completely on Ragna's fight with Ryofu. Chouryou balked at first, but did the same when it became clear that Kan'u was not going to look toward her, but would likely know if she was attempting to escape and kill her without hesitating as a result.

At that moment, Ragna was panting as he held back an overhead strike from Ryofu that would have split his head open like a melon if it had hit. With an annoyed shout, he pushed her back again, and cursed under his breath as she retreated for only a moment, then began to circle clockwise. They'd been trading blows for a while now, and Ryofu's face was as stoic and uncaring as it had been when they'd started. As Ragna began to move in the other direction, Ryofu let out an annoyed grunt, staring at him with narrow purple eyes. "I'm...tired. You're annoying."

Ragna stared at Ryofu as if she'd grown a second head. "What? _You're _tired? Are you kidding?"

Ryofu ignored him, and shifted her blade slightly. Ragna groaned in annoyance and shook out his left arm, then gripped Blood-Scythe all the tighter with his right hand, spun it into a forward grip, and smashed it into the ground between them, knocking up a cloud of dust. Ryofu grunted and narrowed her eyes, shielding her eyes from the dirt, but her ears perked up just in time to hear Ragna's boots crunching on the ground. Reflexively, she thrust her halberd in the direction that she'd heard the sound come from, and hit nothing.

She realized that Ragna had jumped only when his heel crashed into her head from above, flooring her on the spot.

Her body was rattled by the blow, and she fell to hands and knees, dropping her weapon entirely. Spots began to swim in her eyes, and her ears were ringing; despite that, when he landed and attempted to attack her again, she managed to roll to the side, causing his fist to hit nothing but the ground. She then drew herself up and punched him directly in the eye, and after reeling back for half a second, he slammed his foot down and shoved his head forward, butting it into Ryofu's forehead. Then, he jammed Blood-Scythe into the ground and lashed out with a punch from his left hand, then his right. The two blows caught Ryofu's face, crunching into her nose and cheek, and she staggered, allowing Ragna enough time to roar and catch her chin with a violent uppercut from his right hand.

For a few moments, Ryofu's face stared up into the sky, and among all the pain she felt wracking her head, she could think of nothing. Then, as she felt her consciousness fading, her eyes locked onto one of the clouds overhead, and she saw the gentle smile of a young girl with pale, silvery-lavender hair.

"_Aren't those clouds beautiful, Ren?"_

The girl's voice, softly speaking those words, echoed in Ryofu's mind, and all the pain fell away, replaced by iron determination."Yes, Yue."

Without further delay, Ryofu dug her left heel into the ground to keep herself upright, then pushed forward and swung at Ragna's face one more time as he came in with a punch to her stomach. Their attacks connected on their intended targets with dull, quiet thumps, and they both held stock still for a few moments; then, Ragna's lip split open, and Ryofu coughed up a gob of spittle, forcing herself to focus on Ragna's mismatched eyes with a a fierce scowl.

"I won't lose to you," she said. Blood streamed from the spot where Ragna headbutted her and from her nostrils, and she took a step forward, digging his fist deeper into her stomach. Then, she wobbled, and fell to the side, closing her eyes before she even hit the ground.

Ragna coughed and shook his head, then grabbed Blood-Scythe, stored it, and looked around blearily. The fighting continued to rage on behind him and in front of him, but he saw Kan'u gazing in his direction with Chouryou at her feet. Ignoring the way that Chouryou was staring in utter shock at him, Ragna focused his wavering gaze on Kan'u, and nodded once. Kan'u nodded back, and smiled softly, then looked at Chouryou. "You're coming with me. We're going to leave you with a guard while we finish dealing with Hulao."

Chouryou finally looked away from Ragna and Ryofu, and Kan'u noted that her eyes had somehow lost the vibrant shade of green that they'd had earlier in the day. "What about Ren?"

Kan'u watched Ragna sling Ryofu over his shoulder and start to walk over to them, and she sighed, lowering the Green Dragon Blade ever so slightly from Chouryou's throat. "She didn't surrender, but as far as Lord Ragna's concerned it's all the same if she's been beaten unconscious."

Chouryou shakily stood up and winced at both Kan'u's words and the sting of the wounds cut into her body, then slipped her arms into the sleeves for the first time all day, covering her bared breasts completely. She squared her shoulders as Ragna approached, and drew on what remained of her pride.

She could accept defeat, especially if Kan'u was the one that defeated her, but she would not look defeated. Her dignity as a general of Luoyang was at stake.

* * *

_The thirst for victory can be blinding. The desire to win is not a sin in and of itself, but when it stops you from realizing potential danger to you in the course of your victory, you will find that death is excellent at dampening a festive mood._

* * *

_**Proverb 6: The Thirst For Victory Can Be Blinding**_

* * *

_To succinctly explain why this chapter was late? Real life kicked my ass, and I am just now fighting back._

_Moving on from that, all I have to say is that the Toutaku arc is stretching out a bit farther than I planned, but likely will not exceed two more chapters. Those that have played the original KM visual novel will have a decent idea of where we are in terms of overall progression of the story, but I wouldn't rely too much on your knowledge of the game to predict how it'll progress, after a certain point._

_I will not confirm or deny the appearance of other characters from BlazBlue. I will also ask that reviewers refrain from telling me who I should add to the story, as well. I find it a little bit annoying to see that in reviews._

_Just so that it's clear, "Shiina" is not Kayuu's true name in the visual novel (in fact, she doesn't have one, or a given name, in KM or SKM). I gave it to her to make the relationship between herself, Ryofu, Chinkyuu, and Chouryou a little more apparent; I'm guessing that she was kind of just a mercenary in KM and SKM, but her backstory and how it relates to Toutaku will be made clear later._

_Special thanks to Monkeyman for pointing out some typos, and Anon666WTF for giving me an idea to use in a bonus story (haven't seen one of those in a while, eh? Chapters keep being so long already that I don't have many ideas for what to use on them) or an interlude._

_I have obligations to deal with over the next week, so if I get a chapter out on Sunday it'll be kind of a miracle. Hopefully things will settle soon, but if not, consider the story to be on a bi-weekly schedule unless I indicate otherwise._

_Next chapter, Proverb 7: "Dying Is The Same As Escaping Your Sin"._

_Until then._

_~ZS _


	8. Proverb 7

**Henan Province, Hulao Pass**

**Seven months, two weeks, and one day after the prophesied arrival of the Messenger of Heaven**

**Directly after the defeat of Housen Ryofu and Bun'en Chouryou **

It was very rare for Koudai Chinkyuu to ever second-guess herself or to have regrets about anything she did. Oftentimes, with her responsibility to look after Ryofu, she didn't have much time to hesitate or contemplate such things. Ryofu would go headlong into danger, or get lost somewhere, and Chinkyuu would oftentimes have less than ten seconds to either find her or talk her out of doing something really stupid.

That inability to hesitate explained why Chinkyuu hadn't hesitated to send Chouryou and Ryofu into the gap in Sousou's defenses at Hulao Pass. She had been positive that Ryofu and Chouryou were estimating their chances perfectly, and trusted them to break through like they said they would. Now, the consequences of that decision were flying in Chinkyuu's face all at once. Kakouton was mowing down soldiers by the dozens even with her lack of depth perception, and whoever she didn't kill, Kakouen did. The soldiers were listening to her commands and moving as quickly as they could, but with no generals, there was no morale among the troops, and men were deserting and fleeing left and right. It had gotten to the point that the Gi and Go armies had been able to arrange themselves into a V-shaped formation as they kept pushing the Luoyang forces back.

At the moment, Chinkyuu was standing at the head of her army, looking down from near the top of the slope that led up to the gates of Hulao Pass. She had managed to basically made it back to the gates with her men and what remained of the force, and as such, her only options now were either to fight to the last man or to retreat through Hulao. And she was running out of time to decide what to do next, because the Gi/Go army was steadily making its way uphill, with Zhuo and the other forces following suit. With a pained sigh, Chinkyuu turned her telescope over to where Chouryou and Ryofu should have been after breaking through the Gi/Go front. Bile rose up in her throat at her stupidity, and it was an effort to avoid completely breaking down over it. _And it was obvious, now that I think about it, _she admitted to herself. _Stupid Sousou. She's so sneaky, but I never thought it was a trap. _She clenched her fists and bowed her head._ And now...because of me, Shia and Ren are...they're both dead. And those white-clothed jerks will probably kill Yue and Ei... _Her hands started to shake. _And it's all because of that Ragna guy...he's the only reason why they did all of this to begin with._

A nearby soldier cleared his throat and looked down at her, adjusting his helmet. "Lady Chinkyuu! Your orders, please."

The man's voice snapped Chinkyuu out of her daze, and she puffed her cheeks out, grunting in annoyance to hide the deep fear that was shaking her now, to hold back the tears that were burning her eyes and blurring her sight. After a second, she cracked her knuckles and scowled, drawing herself up to her full height. "...We've got to tell Luoyang somehow. But I can't leave you all to die here." Her bottom lip quivered for a few moments, but eventually, she nodded and began to walk downhill.

The soldier took a few hesitant steps forward, and reached toward her. "Lady Chinkyuu!"

"I'm going to surrender," Chinkyuu said. "They'll probably kill me anyway, and they'll take Hulao, but that will give us time to send a messenger to Luoyang." She sighed, and shook her head, but didn't stop walking. "I'm counting on whoever makes it back to keep Yue and Ei...to keep Lady Toutaku and Lady Kaku safe."

The soldier stopped and bowed his head, then turned around and shouted orders at someone nearby; if Chinkyuu had not fully focused her resolve on the road ahead, she would have heard it.

Because she did not notice it, it took her by surprise when after a few moments, Chinkyuu heard the heavy steps of metal boots following behind her. At first, it was only one pair, but it eventually grew to two. Then another two joined in after that, and another two after those two, and another two after those two. It continued in this way until Chinkyuu knew by sound alone that at least a quarter of the men she'd left at the fortress were at her back, marching in orderly rank-and-file. She did not turn to them, did not speak to them, and did not stop walking forward. Her steps did not slow as she kicked aside rocks and kicked up dust. However, as she kept going, slowly descending into the ravine as the Gi/Go offensive continued ascending, the ground beneath her feet was occasionally spattered with small spots, as if single raindrops had fallen down from the sky. On occasion, her shoulders briefly twitched, as if they were being forced to stay still and steady.

If any of the men noticed those things, they did not speak of them, and continued to march on behind her in silence.

That silence stayed until Chinkyuu finally stood in front of Kakouton at the middle of the path, with red eyes and a haunted, haggard look that didn't belong to a young child. Kakouen stood on her sister's new blind side, keeping her eyes angled upward toward the gates of Hulao.

Kakouton scowled, but did not raise the blade in her right hands. "Are you Chouryou or Ryofu, brat?"

"My family name is Chin, and my first name is Kyuu. My common name is Koudai," Chinkyuu whispered, forcing her head to stay level. "I am Housen Ryofu's personal servant and strategist, and with her defeat and the defeat of her fellow general Bun'en Chouryou, I am the nominal head of the forces here at Hulao Pass." She swallowed past the knot in her throat, and allowed the exhaustion and bitterness to finally lower her head as was appropriate. "I am here to formally negotiate terms of surrender."

Kakouton stared down at Chinkyuu for several moments before she allowed a smile to cross her lips, resembling a shark's flash of teeth. "Oh, are you now? Very well." She looked over Chinkyuu's head, at the large deposition of Luoyang soldiers that had followed behind the small girl. "Your men will drop their arms, and wait here. You will then march between our men and Zhuo's. We will continue on to Hulao, and anyone that does not surrender, dies. Is that clear?"

"Of course," Chinkyuu replied, trying very hard not to scream bloody murder at the self-satisfied expression on Kakouton's face; if the army kept marching, they'd probably make it up the pass and into the fortress itself before any messengers could be sent back to Luoyang, rendering the surrender almost completely pointless. She did, however, notice Kakouton's closed left eye and the dried blood caking the area around it, and allowed herself a moment of quiet satisfaction.

Without further prompting, Chinkyuu stepped to the side of the path, as did the soldiers that accompanied her. They were joined by a single Gi soldier mounted on a horse, a messenger to inform Zhuo of the surrender, most likely. A general clattering rose up as Chinkyuu's soldiers dropped their swords and spears to the ground, and they all stared forward in grim, mute silence as their conquerors continued to pass by them and advanced on the fort. Once all the Gi and Go soldiers passed them by, Chinkyuu stepped back into the road, as did Sousou's messenger, and faced forward to "greet" the Zhuo army. Chinkyuu herself was so emotionally drained that she didn't bother to raise her head as she heard the clopping of hooves and the shuffling of feet coming from the path in front of her. However, when she heard the distinct clacking of wooden sandals, she immediately looked up, and became a statue.

Of course, Ragna was there, mounted on Cerberus and looming over her. The right sleeve of his red jacket and the black shirt he wore under it was completely gone, exposing the black bandages that covered his right arm completely, and he was sweaty and disgruntled-looking, not to mention that his face was a bit bruised. Chouhi and Shoukatsuryou walked beside each other on his right side, both wearing identical expressions of wide-eyed shock at the large group of Luoyang soldiers standing on the side of the road, while Kan'u was on his left side, with the Green Dragon Blade in hand. What mattered most to Chinkyuu, though—the reason she had frozen up—was the fact that Chouryou was right there. She was walking beside Kan'u with a babyish pout, trying and failing to rub herself against Kan'u's shoulder like an affectionate cat. She was wearing her coat properly instead of keeping it slung over her shoulders like the world's most impractical cape, and every step she took made her flinch, but it was clear.

Chouryou was alive. Injured and and unarmed, but alive.

And Ryofu, too, was alive. Granted, she was draped over Ragna's shoulder, limp and insensate, but still breathing, occasionally twitching her fingers.

Chinkyuu stared blankly for several moments, while Chouryou blinked and managed a warm smile once she realized that Chinkyuu was there. Ragna simply looked down at Chinkyuu with his right eyebrow raised, then looked over at Sousou's messenger. "What the hell are these guys just doing standing here? They surrendered?"

"Yes, Lord Ragna," the messenger replied. "Lady Kakouton wants you to march behind them so that they're between the vanguard and your soldiers."

Ragna sighed. "Whatever, I'm too tired to argue about this shit. And, yes, before you ask, I did capture both Chouryou and Ryofu, if my fucked-up clothes and this split lip didn't make that obvious." His eyes narrowed. "Do me a favor, though, and tell your bosses that if Sousou keeps pulling this shit to test me and mine, Zhuo is going to withdraw altogether. I don't have soldiers to waste on her games."

The messenger went slightly pale, but nodded once. "Understood, sir. Now, if you'll pardon me..." He snapped his reins and wheeled his horse around, then rode off to catch up with the vanguard a bit too quickly to be casual about it.

Ragna watched him go, then grunted in annoyance and shook his head, muttering something about "fucking Gi", then looked back down at Chinkyuu with his trademark scowl on his face. "And who're you, kid?"

"Her name is Koudai Chinkyuu, and she's a very brave young lady, one of my best friends, and a damn smart strategist when she isn't being terribly overconfident," Chouryou replied, slightly broadening her smile. She gingerly walked over to where Chinkyuu was standing and staring into space, favoring her injured side, then bent down and pushed Chinkyuu's hat up slightly, rubbing the girl's head slowly. "Good to see you're OK, Nene. I thought that you'd been killed for sure after me and Ren lost."

"Why didn't he kill you?" Chinkyuu asked, her voice sounding terribly small and completely shaken. "Why didn't he kill Ren?"

"I don't know," Chouryou said, "but to be honest, I'm not so upset about it, considering that you didn't die either." Her smile broadened slightly, though she did wince again as she straightened up. "And, well, if he didn't kill us, and you aren't dead either, I think our chances of seeing Shiina again are a lot better than I thought."

Chinkyuu's eyes began to water. Hastily, she scrubbed her eyes with the back of her arm, wiping the tears off on her sleeve. "S-Stop trying to act so cool about losing," she said, sniffing a few times. "You're mad, aren't you? Didn't you want to beat Kan'u? Didn't you say you were _gonna_ beat Kan'u?"

The Luoyang soldiers that had followed Chinkyuu this far were now being directed by an irate Ragna to begin marching, and the barking anger of his voice caused Chouryou to sigh and shrug. "I said I was going to and then I didn't. It leaves a bad taste in my mouth, but there's nothing I can do about it." Her voice hardened slightly as she looked down at Chinkyuu again, and what little carelessness she had left completely disappeared. "But I have been thinking that there's something we can do about those white-clothed bastards that are holding Yue hostage when we get to Luoyang, and it involves the one-sleeved wonder on top of that horse."

Chinkyuu's eyes and mouth widened slightly. Then, she realized what Chouryou was getting at, and right as she was about to confirm her suspicion with a question, Kan'u's voice cut in. "Chouryou, Chinkyuu, that's enough talking. If you're conspiring an escape, then I see fit to remind you that we have Ryofu in our custody."

"Yes, yes," Chouryou replied, turning to face Kan'u with an over-dramatic sigh. "I was just taking a minute to comfort her, all right? She spent the better half of this lovely day thinking that you'd put your Green Dragon Blade through my gut and cut off my head. You really should relax, Kanny."

Predictably, Kan'u's face flushed up, and it looked like she actually had to resist the urge to avoid stomping her foot. "Stop calling me by that abominable nickname at once!"

Chouryou laughed and put on a catlike smile as she hobbled back over to Kan'u's side, and Chinkyuu followed behind her in silence. When Chouryou got there, she playfully swatted at Kan'u's ponytail like a cat, and purred, smiling widely and replying to Kan'u's angry shout with the words "You're so cute when you get riled up, Kanny."

In contrast, Chinkyuu frowned darkly, mulling over what Chouryou had just said to her. _Is Shia really planning on trying to join forces with Zhuo?_

* * *

**Two hours later**

In the end, Gi was credited largely with the capture of the fortress, as Kakouton and Kakouen had been leading the charge up to Hulao, and with Choukyou's help, brought the gates down.

For his part, Ragna couldn't have cared less about that. Instead, he was far more interested in settling down in camp; night was falling, his clothes were still ruined, his healing was going rather slowly, and he was hungry.

However, before he addressed any of that, he had to deal with his new prisoners.

In the end, Gi had released Chinkyuu into his care, after Hulao had been conquered. Kakouton had said that she "had no time to be looking after snot-nosed brats," but Ragna was fairly certain that her missing eye was probably just making her more grouchy than usual (and considering that he'd lost a whole damn arm, he could understand a bit of what she was feeling). Shortly after camp had been made, Ragna had given Chouryou, a still-unconscious Ryofu, and Chinkyuu over to what passed for his medics out here. When that was done, Ragna had the guards bring the prisoners to the area outside of his tent, and that set the scene for what was happening now.

Ragna was standing in front of his tent, with Kan'u, Shoukatsuryou, and Chouhi standing around him. The prisoners were in front of them, arms and legs unbound; Chouryou was in the middle, with her coat back over her shoulders and a new set of bandages around her breasts in addition to the ones around her wound; now, though, they actually went down to about her midriff instead of being just enough to cover her breasts. Chinkyuu was standing next to Ryofu rather protectively, while Kayuu was slightly off to the side, with her leg freshly bandaged and splinted.

Ragna spoke first to break the tense atmosphere. "So since I already went through part of this song and dance with Kayuu, I guess I'll skip to the meat of it. I figure that none of you are interested in betraying Toutaku or Luoyang, but I'm gonna give you a choice anyway. You can join up with my army, or you're going to stay as prisoners for the rest of your lives." He leaned forward, cupping his hands in a casual sort of way as he rolled his shoulders. "Either way, I'm not gonna kill you all unless you somehow get away from me and decide to plan revenge. Then I'm just gonna put my sword through your forehead and call it a day—you had your shot at me and fucked it up, so you don't get any second chances. Clear?"

Chinkyuu managed to keep her face neutral despite how bluntly he'd promised to kill them if it came to it, while Chouryou raised her eyebrow slightly, still stuck on the fact that he'd actually offered them a place in the Zhuo military. In contrast, Kayuu snorted in annoyance and rubbed the skin just above her injured leg, while Ryofu stared at Ragna with an empty, dreamlike gaze, completely unlike the intense, hateful glare that she'd thrown at him when she'd thought Kayuu was dead.

Shoukatsuryou fidgeted in the silence that followed Ragna's speech, while Kan'u humphed darkly and scowled at the prisoners—she had not agreed with Ragna's decision when he'd first told her, Shoukatsuryou, and Chouhi what he had planned, but she knew better than to argue with him about it. Chouhi simply watched all the goings-on with her hands behind her head. After a moment, Chouryou smiled, and put her hands on her hips, nodding once. "All right. I'll bite. But I have a condition."

Kan'u lost the fight to look calm and relatively dignified the moment that statement slipped out. "I'm sorry, I'm afraid I misheard you," she said, glaring daggers at Chouryou. "Are you actually countering Lord Ragna's gracious offer to you with a demand for _conditions?_ You're a madwoman, or I must have clipped your head with a stray strike earlier today."

Chouryou's green eyes narrowed as well, and the easy grin on her face was gone in a twinkling of an eye. "Trust me, I'm not crazy. I've got a damn good reason for asking for this. Stay out of it, please."

Kan'u let out a low, dark growl, but stopped when Ragna raised a hand. "Quit screwing around and tell me what this so called condition is," he said, rubbing his face with his right hand. "You're already working my last nerve by keeping me from food and a nap."

"I'll do whatever you want me to do for you, and you help me save Yue from the white-clothed bastards that set this whole mess up," Chouryou said, fixing Ragna with her most determined stare. "That's it."

Shoukatsuryou blinked a few times and stared blankly at Chouryou, while Chouhi let out a blank, confused "Nya?" and Kan'u's angry expression became puzzled.

"'Save Yue'?" Shoukatsuryou asked. "Who's Yue, exactly?"

"She means Toutaku," Kayuu said, rolling her eyes.

Kan'u only had enough time to puff herself up and threaten to launch into a lecture before Chouryou groaned and shook her head, cutting Kan'u's tirade off. "Don't interrupt me, Kan'u. Just listen. It's true that Xie Liu and Empress Dong did reach out to us in Bingzhou in order to help Dong keep the throne. But the moment we came to Luoyang, we were captured by these strangers in white clothing. They killed Liu and Dong, then killed Empress He and Prince Bian and forced Yue to take power." She folded her arms, ignoring the slight sting of pain from her wounded side. "If we don't do what they tell us, Yue dies. If Yue doesn't do what they tell her to do, Bingzhou gets torched and Yue's grandparents die."

Ragna's normal scowl deepened as he surveyed the faces of the other prisoners. Kayuu's expression was still clearly scornful of the whole proceedings, but something despondent had crept into her face, while Chinkyuu frowned and looked off to the side. Ryofu's expression was the only one that remained the same, but she shifted her feet and let out a quiet moan, then lowered her head. It reminded Ragna of a sad animal.

"You know what you're asking me, don't you?" he asked. "The only reason that this alliance is together is to bring Toutaku down. If I do this, Zhuo's army dies before we can as much as look to the northeast again."

Chouryou's face remained set in stone. "I know, but I wouldn't be asking you if I had another choice. Yue is the reason that my life has any meaning right now, and I would do anything for her sake." She boldly advanced a few steps, then knelt down and lowered her head to the ground, causing Kayuu to squirm and Ryofu and Chinkyuu to clench their fists. "Ragna of Zhuo, I'm begging you. Please."

Kan'u flinched at that, and looked away, pursing her lips. "Lord Ragna, please. You've shown mercy enough to them. If you agree to this request, then what are you supposed to do if things go wrong?"

"But if Toutaku didn't do anything wrong, then what?" Chouhi replied, shaking her head. "We're the good guys, sis! We can't go around hurting people for no reason! That just makes us bullies!"

"I know that, Rinrin," Kan'u said, fighting to keep her voice under control. "But for all we know, Chouryou could be lying to us. If we believe her and it turns out to be a trick, that's almost as bad as hurting someone innocent."

"Shia isn't lying!" Chinkyuu shouted. Her tone caused Chouryou to raise her head, but though she stayed kneeling, the worry on her face was palpable. However, before she could speak, Chinkyuu kept talking, clenching her small hands shut. "Yue's really in trouble, and it's all because of those jerks in white! And on top of that, the only reason they're even using her is because of you! When they showed up, they said that everything they were making Yue take the blame for was to draw out 'the Messenger of Heaven'! Last I checked, there was only one of those around, and he's sitting on his pompous, stupid ass right in front of me!"

That insult was more than even Chouhi could bear, despite the fact that she was sticking up for the Luoyang generals, and she started to take an ominous step toward Chinkyuu, cracking her knuckles simply by twisting her hands into claw-like shapes. Kan'u and Shoukatsuryou were equally indignant, as their flushed faces and frowns clearly proved, but before they could speak, Ragna took two steps forward, and stared directly down at Chinkyuu's face. The girl was doing her best to hide it, but her watering eyes made it abundantly clear. She was angry at him, but only because she truly believed that Toutaku was innocent in this entire mess. In Chinkyuu's mind, Ragna was at fault for Toutaku's condition, yet he was the only one who could save Toutaku as well.

"You know, kid," he said quietly, "Aisha was right. I really don't have any reason to believe that you're telling me the truth. But I know that look in your eyes, I've seen it before." He looked pointedly at where Chouryou remained crouched on the ground. "If we get to Luoyang and you're telling the truth, I save Toutaku for you, but in exchange, you ALL work for me, no questions asked. If you're lying, you get locked up for life, no second chances." His eyes narrowed. "Your choice."

Chouryou quickly touched her forehead to the ground again. "I accept."

Kayuu actually let out a squawk at that, and stared with wild eyes at Chouryou's back. "Shia, what are you doing!? How could you betray Yue like that!?"

Chouryou slowly stood up, and put her fists on her hips, fixing Kayuu with a firm stare. "I'm trying to save Yue, Shiina. Think about it. We can't escape to go save Yue, and even if we could, those white-clothed bastards are like cockroaches. Ei can't fight all of them off with the soldiers left in the capital, and even if she could, all those strangers would need to do is kill Yue to make it all pointless. We need _someone's _help, and Ragna's willing to help. That's all there is to it. If you really want to get locked up so that I have to go save Yue on my own, go on ahead." Her green eyes shone with intensity. "I don't forget my debts that easily. She saved me, and I intend to return that favor."

Ryofu turned her head toward Chouryou and spoke up for the first time, opening her fists and letting her hands dangle freely. "...Not alone. I'll go too." She looked over at Ragna again. "...I have conditions. Don't break my house. Give me money."

"You would sell your skill for money like a common mercenary?" Kan'u replied angrily. "The nerve of you, Ryofu..."

Chouryou raised her hands for a moment. "You're misunderstanding, Kanny. It's to feed her pets, she has somewhere close to fifty of the damn things. Ren doesn't really care about money aside from that." Kan'u's glare didn't lessen, and Chouryou let out an exasperated sigh. "Just wait till we get to Luoyang. You'll see for yourself."

"Well, if Ren is going to help, I guess I will too," Chinkyuu mumbled. She shook her head a few times, and glared up at Ragna. "But you're not off the hook! I'm only doing this because I'm gonna make you help fix this mess you made!"

Ragna shrugged off her angry invectives, and looked over at Kayuu. "What about you? You on board with this or not?"

Kayuu's scowl grew fiercer, but after languidly looking at the others, she deigned to face Ragna head on, and nodded. She was still disdainful of him, he could tell, but it seemed like she didn't quite have the nerve to outright abandon her comrades just because she didn't like him. "I'm not leaving these idiots on their own. Even if it means I grow old with them in some stinking prison hole." Her amber eyes narrowed and hardened. "A lot of people have said a lot of things about me, but the one thing they will never get a chance to say is that I turned my back on my friends."

_So it's not a question of nerve, it's actual friendship, _Ragna thought, nodding in reply to her without giving away that he was running a separate train of thought_. She's kind of a bitch, but at least her heart is in the right place._

Kan'u, Chouhi, Shoukatsuryou, and even the rest of the Luoyang generals seemed surprised by her flat statement of allegiance. With a growl that matched one of Ragna's on his finest days, she turned away from all of them, causing her dress to sweep around her legs with the force of her movement. Seeing that she wasn't in the mood to talk any more than that, Ragna cracked his knuckles and turned away as well. "Aisha, escort them back to the tent. I'm going to get food and go to sleep. Shuri, if Sousou comes around looking for me for a meeting, you have permission to interrupt me for that. Otherwise, the sky better be falling on our goddamn heads before you come bother me about something. Am I understood?"

Kan'u nodded, as did Shoukatsuryou, and both of them let out a sharp "Yes, sir". Satisfied with that, Ragna raised his right hand in a lazy wave to acknowledge them, and walked off. After a moment, though, he turned around, raising his right eyebrow and staring straight at Chouryou. "Wait a sec, Chouryou. Toutaku's a woman?"

Chouryou looked at her new lord with wide eyes and raised brows, puffing out her lower lip a little bit. "A girl, actually." She blinked. "What made you think otherwise?"

"Crappy information is what," Ragna muttered to himself, shaking his head as he walked away. "How does an entire continent get one girl's gender wrong?"

As Kan'u and Chouhi both stepped forward to lead the Luoyang generals back into confinement, Ryofu spoke for all her friends as she stared at Ragna's departing back. "...Stubborn. Strange, too."

Despite herself, Kan'u couldn't help but sigh and silently agree. Yet she knew that if there was a way to make Ragna less obstinate and less irreverent, he would not be the man that she respected, even when they explosively disagreed about something.

She was drawn from her thoughts when Chouryou started to swipe and bat at her hair again, mewling playfully with a bright smile and wide-open eyes. "Ahh, Kanny~ Your hair's so long and pretty and smells nice~"

"Stop that, you fool!"

* * *

**One hour later**

Despite his orders to be left alone, Ragna found that he had a visitor after he finished eating dinner and went to his tent. When he pushed open the flaps to his tent, Kan'u was standing next to his bedroll, looking down at the ground with her arms folded as if she were embarrassed by something; after staring blankly at her for a second, he poked his head out of the tent, looked up at the sky, and pulled his head back in.

"The sky isn't falling, Lord Ragna," Kan'u said. In the time that he hadn't been looking at her, she'd raised her head, but the sadness on her face hadn't gone anywhere. "I...there's something important that I have to say to you." She straightened up, then slowly got on hands and knees to bow much like Chouryou had earlier. "Earlier today, I was inexcusably rude to you by questioning your decision to spare Kayuu. I admit that I still feel uneasy with the idea of allowing any of the enemy generals to join us—especially Ryofu, considering how badly she hurt you—even if they surrendered to us. However, if that's what you desire, then I won't..."

Ragna sighed, and walked over to Kan'u. She looked up at him in confusion, and he bent down, took her hand, and pulled her to her feet with a sort of firm gentleness. "It's done, Aisha. Stop worrying about it." He shook his head and took off his ruined jacket, throwing it onto the bedroll. "To be honest, I was being a jackass at Sishui Pass. I should have just said 'let's talk about this later' or something. Which I kind of did, but I was being rude so it doesn't count." He then sat down on the bedroll with a heavy grunt, then lowered his head and knitted his fingers together. "So, yeah. I'm sorry about that. Still, if you think I'm fucking up, then yeah, tell me. Just...try to time it better. OK?"

Ragna's apology made Kan'u's chest warm up for a brief moment, and she nodded gratefully, allowing a soft smile to cross her face. However, what he'd just said caused her to stop not long afterward. "Then, Lord Ragna, I'll be honest. I still don't trust Chouryou and the others. Their story sounds suspicious, not to mention outright silly. Are you really intending to keep your promise even if it means that the entire alliance could turn against us?"

Ragna shrugged, and raised his head with a much-reduced version of his normal scowl, putting his mouth into a neutral line. "Their story sounds weird to me too. But I promised, didn't I?" He rubbed the knuckle of his right thumb with his left thumb. "That kid Chinkyuu is confident as hell about those people in white she was talking about. This is gonna sound stupid, but it feels like I ought to give her a chance. Even if she just turns out to be crazy, at least I'd have stuck to my promise before I lock her and the rest of them up. I know I'm probably being an idiot, but most of the time trusting my gut never put me in a bad spot."

Kan'u folded her arms and gave Ragna a skeptical, half-lidded glare. "'Most of the time'? Need I remind you of the arrow incident?"

Ragna's mouth pinched up as if he'd smelled something foul. "That shit was not my fault, that was goddamn Rinrin not listening to orders! I was exactly where I needed to be"

The indignant look on his face, almost resembling a pout, wore down Kan'u's stern front, and she laughed gently, shaking her head.

After a minute, Ragna eventually loosened up enough to let out a sigh and a few dry chuckles of his own.

**Henan province, Luoyang**

**Seven months, two weeks, and four days after the prophesied arrival of the Messenger of Heaven**

**The night before the attack on Luoyang**

The three-day march to Luoyang from Hulao Pass was fairly quiet, with the soldiers of all the camps keeping largely to themselves as they mentally prepared for the final assault on the city. However, whispers in the camps at night made it clear that Ragna and Kan'u's hands in stopping Chouryou and Ryofu had not gone unnoticed, and Ragna's decision to spare the Luoyang generals paid off when the majority of the men that surrendered at Hulao chose to rally under Zhuo's flag.

After the first day on the road, another group of spies were sent on ahead of the larger group to infiltrate Luoyang and report back. Going into the city blind after coming this far would possibly get more men killed than was strictly necessary, even if Toutaku was now deprived of all her best soldiers. When there was time to rest, Ragna and his generals took their new recruits aside and drilled them relentlessly. Though the captured generals from Luoyang were not allowed to participate, they were allowed to watch, albeit under heavy guard, and that additional reminder of Ragna's mercy, harsh as it was, did its own part to raise the new recruits' morale.

Despite how warmly the new soldiers were welcomed into the army, there was an underlying tension among Ragna, his generals, and their higher-ranking captives that did not escape the Zhuo soldiers' attention. Ragna and Kayuu in particular seemed to glare holes in each others' heads, and if she had not been weaponless it was likely that they would've come to blows yet again. Luckily for their continued health, they had the sense to never bring the matter up except between themselves, and only amongst those comrades that they trusted; not a word of the rampant gossip ever made it to Ragna, Kan'u, or Shoukatsuryou.

On the night before the attack, Ragna and Shoukatsuryou were called to the customary meeting of the alliance leaders. When they arrived at the entrance to Sousou's camp, they were greeted by none other than Kakouton; she was not wearing any of her armor, or her sword. However, her now-useless left eye was hidden behind a butterfly-shaped eyepatch that sported multicolored wings, and her normal air of surliness was significantly lessened.

"Welcome," Kakouton said to Ragna, scowling slightly even as she inclined her head. "Lady Karin's called you here early so that you could partake of some refreshments before the meeting. Follow me, please."

Ragna raised a snowy eyebrow, both at Kakouton's new accessory and her surprising propriety toward him. Wisely, he said nothing about either, and he and Shoukatsuryou followed behind her without another word.

After only a minute or two, they arrived at the center of the camp, where Sousou sat on the far side of a round wooden table, drinking something from a glass. Kakouen, Kyouchou, and Jun'iku all stood behind her chair, and Kakouton joined them shortly after showing Ragna and Shoukatsuryou to their place at the table, directly across from Sousou. To Ragna's left, Sonken and Ryomou were seated, eating some form of cracker, while Kousonsan sat to Ragna's right; they both nodded in Ragna's direction when he sat down, and Ragna returned the gesture. An open bottle of wine sat at the center of the table, half-empty, and its soft smell cut through the musty scent of the soil and campfire mingling together.

Sousou chuckled softly to herself, and the sound drew Ragna's attention to her. "What's the occasion for the treat, Sousou?" he asked, settling himself into his chair and pulling out Shoukatsuryou's for her. "We do have an invasion to get around to tomorrow and I'm not quite into getting drunk before a job."

"It's simply my way of congratulating you for capturing Ryofu and Chouryou," Sousou replied, sipping from her glass again. "When Toutaku first suppressed that rebellion in Bingzhou, those two were counted amongst the fiercest warriors on her side, once she convinced them to join her instead of the rebels. Before then, there was nothing of note regarding either of them; they earned that reputation through that one conflict alone. For those of us that have built our names more slowly, that is a rather impressive feat." She tilted her head and regarded Ragna with a cool smile that made his skin crawl. "In a way, it reminds me of what happened with you. How interesting that history would repeat itself so soon..."

Kousonsan noticed Ragna's growing unease, and decided to try and help him out a bit by taking up the thread of conversation as things quieted down. "So, what exactly is the plan for Luoyang? Oppressed or not, the people will probably not respond well to a bunch of soldiers just marching into their city. For all we know, they know nothing about our alliance or their liberation."

"We tell them the truth," Sousou said, trying not to roll her eyes. "And once we know what's going on in the city, we'll adjust our forces accordingly. Our spies will tell us everything we need to know tomorrow, and from there we will do what needs to be done."

"It's never that simple," Ragna muttered under his breath, picking up his cup and downing a mouthful of the alcohol with a grunt. "Just you wait."

Though she did not acknowledge what he'd said out loud, Shoukatsuryou nodded in agreement and took a very small sip from her own cup. She did not like the taste of alcohol, and her small body would not handle it well if she took a lot of it, but Sousou could not be offended at this critical juncture.

* * *

**The next day**

An hour ago, the alliance had arrived at Luoyang proper, and were greeted with an unarmed, completely shut gate. Not even a single soldier manned the ramparts, and the spies that were supposed to meet them outside were nowhere to be seen. With this undesirable complication in tactics, Sousou had instead decided to send Zhuo in with support from Kousonsan and Enshou; the gate had fallen to Chouhi about ten minutes ago, and Ragna had taken the lead with his officers in tow, splitting his forces so that his personal unit and his officers protected him while Kan'u and Chouhi's units followed Kousonsan's lead.

"For the record," Ragna said aloud as he rode through the deathly quiet streets of Luoyang on Cerberus' back, "I wasn't serious when I said that last night. It was a joke. You know, one of those things that you say because you're trying to be funny." He looked around, and shuddered at the sight of the locked and bolted buildings and the heavy steps of his personal unit bouncing off the walls and the alleyways. "I mean, I'm grateful that no one's come out to do anything stupid, but this shit's kind of creepy." He looked to his left, where a weaponless Ryofu walked slightly ahead of him with assured, if languid, footsteps. She was accompanied by Chinkyuu, Kayuu, and Chouryou, and while all four of them were left unbound, the fact that Ragna was on Cerberus was more than enough to discourage an escape.

On his right side, Kan'u sighed. "Lord Ragna, you're rambling. Don't we need to be looking for Ryofu's home?" She did not voice her annoyance that Ragna was still holding up his end of the bargain despite the fact that there had been no signs of any strangers in white clothes, though Ryofu had initially said upon entering the city itself that "their presence was gone. Hiding."

"Ryofu will tell us where it is when we get there," Ragna replied, stretching out a kink in his neck. "And, for the record, even if we don't see any of those white-clothed people, we're still going to secure her place, because we need somewhere safe to set up."

"...Almost there," Ryofu said as she kept walking. She looked over her shoulder to regard Ragna with one violet eye."…and, 'Ren' is fine, Lord Ragna."

Ragna blinked. "What?"

"She wants you to call her by her true name," Chinkyuu replied grouchily. She gave Ragna the stink-eye, complete with folded arms and babyish pout; clearly something about how friendly Ryofu was being didn't sit right with her. "You might as well, she'll get really snippy with you if you don't."

Ragna almost pointed out that Ryofu was already snippy enough as it was, then remembered how the few words they exchanged during their fight made it sound like she wanted to pull his face off and flush it down a toilet. "Ren it is, then."

As Ryofu had promised, the group soon came to her house, a plain, single story hut with a red roof and a surprising amount of space acting as a yard of sorts. As Ren led them through the gates, there was a loud bark, and a dog with medium-length, light-brown fur came rushing up to her. The Zhuo officers were then genuinely surprised to see Ryofu smile warmly as she bent down to the dog's level and gave him a tight hug, scratching his back and ears. "Hello, Sekitou. I missed you too. Where's everyone else?"

Sekitou barked again, and as if summoned by a hunter's horn, animals of all kinds—puppies, dogs, kittens, cats, birds—came from nowhere to greet Ryofu, chirping and purring and barking and fussing. Ragna noted in amazement how Ryofu's eyes swept over each animal with the kind of familiarity that came from a years-long relationship with a family member or a friend, and how expressive her face had become. Chouryou smiled, too, as did Chinkyuu, while Kayuu huffed under her breath and folded her arms. Kan'u, Chouhi, and Shoukatsuryou all seemed bewildered by the sudden change in Ryofu's behavior, but didn't speak up.

The moment passed, though, and Ryofu stood up after several murmured reassurances to her pets. She turned to Ragna, and the smile on her face gradually faded to the normal stoic line. "My weapon. Please." She turned to Chouryou and Kayuu. "Shia and Shiina's, too." Her eyes narrowed. "The enemy is coming."

Ragna's frown darkened, but before he could protest, a great shout rose up from outside Ryofu's compound, at the gate. A messenger from the group of soldiers guarding the door rushed in, panting heavily. "Lord Ragna! We just intercepted a strange carriage with two young girls inside of it! It was being driven by one of Toutaku's soldiers when it was attacked by a gang of strange men in white robes! They're armed and fighting against us!"

Ragna's hesitation vanished in an instant, and he grunted as Chinkyuu grinned cheekily at him, forgetting all traces of her earlier melancholy. "Get that stupid smile off your face, kid. No one likes the one that says 'I told you so' all the time." At a nod from Ragna, three of his men came forward; one carried Ryofu's Heaven-Piercing Spear, the second carried Chouryou's Flying Dragon Blade, and the third carried Kayuu's Adamant-Breaking Axe. Kan'u started and frowned as the men gave the weapons over to their owners, but stilled herself when Ragna cracked his knuckles and turned Cerberus toward the front gate. "Ren, Chouryou, Aisha, Shuri. You're with me. Kayuu, Chinkyuu, Rinrin, hold the fort here. When we secure that carriage, we're bringing it back here." He clenched his fist. "We kill these bastards and get our asses going."

Chouryou put on a catlike smile, and gripped her Flying Dragon Blade; sunlight glinted on the edge of the halberd and on the metal plates on the back of her dark fingerless gloves. "So, _Lord_ Ragna. Are you saying what I think you're saying?"

"If what you think I'm saying is 'Welcome to the Zhuo army', then you're right," Ragna shouted. He pulled his feet out of Cerberus' stirrups and hopped to the ground, patting the black warhorse's flank gently before storming off toward the front gate of Ryofu's home. "Now quit screwing around and get your ass in gear! We got some extermination to do and that Toutaku chick to find!"

Chouryou nodded and fell into step behind him, as did Ryofu; Kan'u and Shoukatsuryou flanked him, and Kan'u even made a point of cutting in front of Ryofu to take her particular position. "As you command, my lord," Chouryou said. "But please, call me Shia." Her smile went catlike again, but there was a hint of sincerity in it that carried over to her voice. "And...thank you for trusting us."

Ragna unsheathed Blood-Scythe and rolled his right shoulder, causing a few distinct cracking sounds. "Thank me after we've gotten rid of these assholes and found your girl. Right now, you're gonna be working for your first paycheck."

He pushed open the gate, and true to the soldier's words, a gang of men in white clothing flooded the main street, armed with swords, spears, halberds, and bows. Strange eyes marked their robes, and white hoods hid their faces, but the moment Ragna stepped out into the street, they all faced him as one synchronized unit, brandishing their weapons. "There he is!" shouted one of the men. "The Messenger of Heaven! My brothers, let's end his miserable life now! His evil can't be permitted to stay loose in this world!"

With a shout, several of them rushed forward, brandishing swords and spears. Ragna snorted, then sidestepped the first person that stabbed at him. While the man was off balance, Ragna followed through with a punch to the face and a slash from Blood-Scythe, cutting his enemy down before the man could hit the ground. He then proceeded to march onward, nonchalantly using Blood-Scythe to block blows before retaliating with heavy slashes that blew away two or three enemies at once. A sickening cracking sound broke the air with every strike he unleashed—the sounds of breaking weapons and bones alike. Chouryou whistled and arched a lavender eyebrow, then idly dodged an attack from one of the White Robes that had tried to sneak up behind her. While he was over-extended, she spun around, slashing him down with the rotational force. "Ren, how did you walk away from that fight in one piece?" she muttered to herself. "He hits like you, or even harder. Was he planning on catching us to begin with? Holding back so he wouldn't kill us?" Another three of them rushed in, shouting even louder, and Chouryou's bemused frown turned onto a proud smirk before she knocked all three of them back with a wicked horizontal slice, splitting their chests open.

Ryofu and Kan'u positioned themselves on the side of the street opposite Ragna and fought off all of the White Clothes that tried to make their way through to Ryofu's house and the gate where Shoukatsuryou was standing and watching the battle with a worried, wobbling frown. As they slashed and cut through their shared enemies, Kan'u cast wary glances in Ryofu's direction, as if expecting the smaller girl to suddenly turn round and rush to cut Ragna down, but held her peace, choosing to focus most of her effort on the job in front of her.

After a few minutes of pitched battle, the remnants of the White Clothes forces withdrew, pulling away and disappearing into the dark alleyways between the other buildings on the street. Ragna sighed in annoyance and flicked Blood-Scythe clean with a lightness that didn't seem possible with such a large blade, then sheathed it and looked further down the street. Some of his soldiers were surrounding a carriage, and though a few of the men were injured, the White Clothes that had been attacking them were gone as well.

He also noticed the dead body of one of Toutaku's men lying sprawled out next to one of the horses.

"Bring the carriage in here," Ragna shouted to them, motioning with his right hand. "I want to talk to whoever's in there."

One of the uninjured soldiers nodded. "As you command, Lord Ragna!"

* * *

Once the horses were convinced to turn around and go to Ryofu's place, things moved along relatively quickly. For privacy's sake, Ragna gave orders to his soldiers to secure the perimeter, leaving only him and his officers to wait patiently in Ryofu's yard. The former Luoyang generals were lined up on his left side, while Kan'u, Shoukatsuryou, and Chouhi were on the right. The carriage had been led inside quietly, and left to stand in front of where they all stood now. Soon enough, one of the carriage doors was thrown open without preamble, allowing the riders to step out.

They were a somewhat strange pair of young ladies, both of moderate height and young appearance. One of them was small, almost doll-like; she wore a flowing purple coat with dark sleeves,a white fur muffler, and a red dress that spilled to the ground and covered her feet. A long, semi-transparent veil was cast over part of her face, exposing dull purple eyes. She wore a thin ribbon just above her forehead, tied into a neat bow in her short, wavy, shoulder-length lavender hair. A black hat capped her head and kept the veil in place.

The other was an angry-looking girl, slightly older in appearance than her lavender-haired companion and slightly taller as well. Part of her green hair was tied into two thin braids, one on each side of her head, and the rest was styled into a pair of bangs that exposed part of her forehead. She wore a cream-colored shirt over a short black skirt, with matching black leggings, fingerless gloves, and boots. Her sharp, amber-colored eyes were hidden behind a pair of round-lensed glasses with a purple half-frame on the bottom edge.

Any mystery regarding their identities was quickly dispelled when the two girls laid eyes on Kayuu, Chouryou, Ryofu, and Chinkyuu; the small girl's eyes widened, while the glasses girl seemed to choke on something for a few moments before recovering herself.

"Heya, Yue, Ei," Chouryou said, waving with her usual cheerful smile. "Missed us?"

"How is this possible?" the glasses girl whispered, shaking her head. "It can't be possible. Why would he spare you?" Her voice cracked, but she swallowed the knot in her throat and stared at Chouryou, Ryofu, Chinkyuu, and Kayuu, shaking her head so furiously that the tassels on the front of her black hat swayed as if they were caught in a headwind. "You all betrayed us, didn't you?"

"Like hell they did," Ragna replied, cutting off the girl's angry rant. "Only reason they're with me is because they basically begged me to let them come along. If anything they only joined up with me so that they'd be able to get my men to save your asses." He folded his arms and looked between the two girls. "Going by what Chouryou just called you two, I'm guessing that one of you is probably Toutaku."

The small girl bowed her head slightly, pressing her hands together as she did so. "I am Chuuei Toutaku." She turned languidly to look at the girl with glasses. "This is Bunwa Kaku, my close friend and chief strategist."

Kan'u, Shoukatsuryou, and Chouhi all stared blankly at Toutaku after she introduced herself, while Ragna pressed his right hand to his face and sighed. _Course it'd be the kid. What is it with me and running into little kids that are a hell of a lot more competent than they look? First the bunny-leech, then Chouhi..._ He shook his head, and re-folded his arms. "Same here. Now do you terribly mind explaining what in the actual fuck is going on here? I heard the story from Chouryou before, about you all being called out here to help Empress Dong before the White Clothes fucked everything up. Is that true or is it not?"

Toutaku's expression remained blank and her eyes stayed dull. Kaku broke the silence and spoke up for her, returning Ragna's sour expression with a frown of her own. "It's all true. The White Clothes captured Yue's grandparents and threatened to burn them and all of Bingzhou if we didn't help. We basically sat around while they forced Yue to stay in the palace and issue a bunch of stupid mandates to subdue the towns folk. Then they started going around, hypnotizing folks with some kind of weird power of some sort. Soon enough, half the population was fleeing from the evil tyrant Toutaku while the other half stayed put and continued to suffer under her rule. That's why no one's around outside. If they didn't get scared into running off, they're hiding and aren't coming out until they know that Yue's out of power."

"Then the word spread to Gi, and Go, and En...and to us, as well, because of those refugees," Kan'u murmured. Not even her skepticism regarding the White Clothes could hold water anymore, considering that they had stopped Toutaku from escaping the capital; they clearly had their own agenda for the ruler of Luoyang that did not mesh with what Toutaku actually wanted. "According to Chinkyuu, their real target has been Lord Ragna all along. So all we did was fall for the trap."

Chouhi pouted, and crossed her arms in an imitation of Ragna. "What a dirty trick! We basically fought all the way here for no good reason! And...we lost a lot of good men, too. Those White Clothes are a bunch of no-good stinkers!"

"I agree," Ragna said, cracking his knuckles with his normal scowl back on his face. "Shame they all ran off for now, though. Maybe we ought to see if we can find some more of them while we clean out the capital city...but first things first." He looked down at Toutaku and Kaku again. "We need to get you two out of here in one piece. You two are gonna have to come with me all the way back to Xizang and Zhuo, but after that, you've got two choices. Take your friends and go live somewhere quiet, or keep staying with us, under our protection."

"I don't recommend that first option, Lord Ragna," Shoukatsuryou said quickly, cupping her chin in her hand. "If for some reason they were discovered, it would ultimately come back to us. We still lack the ability to deal directly with that kind of fallout."

Ragna simply shook his head. "I hear what you're saying, Shuri, and I get why you're saying it. Still, it's only fair that these two get the chance to make their own decision, just like Ren and the others did." He focused on the two girls again. "Well? What'll it be?"

Kaku's frown grew more mulish, but surprisingly, it was Toutaku that answered Ragna's question before Kaku did. "I cannot. The White Clothes may have come here for you, but I allowed them to run rampant in the city. I am responsible for the lives of the soldiers that were sent to fight you, and the lives of those civilians that were hurt by my 'policies'." She closed her eyes. "If you had not caught me, I would have escaped, if only because I thought the others were dead. Since that isn't the case, I would rather that you present me to the heads of the alliance to be executed. Allow Ei and the rest of my generals to stay under your protection until you wish to release them. That should settle things."

"Yue, you can't be serious!" Kaku shouted. "There's no way in hell I'm going to let you throw yourself to those damn dogs!"

"I have made my decision, Ei," Toutaku said quietly, keeping her stoic, dim-eyed gaze on Ragna alone. Something in his heart hurt at seeing such a flat expression on a girl that seemed so young. "If you would be so kind as to spare a soldier to take me and my carriage..."

After a few more moments of silent staring, Ragna broke eye contact first, shaking his head to clear it. "If you were actually responsible for this shit then I'd do just what you said. Really, though, this is my fault as much as it is yours. Maybe even more, since the only reason those weirdos used you was because I came to this world. You don't get to die because you think you need to cover for my mistakes." He turned to look at Ryofu. "Ren. Do you have extra clothes around here that don't look like what you're wearing?"

Ryofu lowered her head and made a noise that Ragna guessed was a negative. However, Chinkyuu rubbed her chin thoughtfully, then looked at Kaku. "Ei, you were trying to sneak Yue out of the capital, right? You weren't going to stay dressed like that the whole time. Those clothes are too fancy."

Kaku scowled, but eventually folded under Chinkyuu's calculating gaze. "There are clothes in the carriage."

"Go change into them," Ragna said. "If anyone asks, your names are Yuna—" he pointed to Toutaku, then to Kaku—"and Houmei, and you're two girls that I rescued from the White Clothes. You agreed to come with me back to Zhuo because I offered you jobs. Got it?"

Toutaku's expression held firm, though her brow furrowed slightly. Kaku stopped frowning at Chinkyuu to frown at him, and Toutaku spoke again. "You said that this was my choice. Why are you turning your back on your word now?"

Ragna allowed himself a fleeting half-smile. "I made a promise." He jerked his thumb to the left, pointing to Chouryou, Ryofu, Chinkyuu, and Kayuu. "The only reason these four are working with me is because I said I'd save you if their story was true. I'm a man of my word, so even if I gotta save you from yourself, I'll damn well do it." The smile faded as he turned to look at his troops. They were thankfully keeping themselves occupied as ordered, well out of casual earshot, so the entire conversation between himself, Toutaku, Kaku, and the others had likely gone completely unnoticed. Satisfied that none of them had heard anything that had happened, he turned back to Toutaku. "Look, I get it. You messed up and you're mad as hell at yourself about it. Killing yourself doesn't fix anything, though. All it means is that you're not owning your fuck-ups. You're just running from them instead."

A slight light came back to Toutaku's eyes as she listened to Ragna, but her expression remained dour and mute. "But that will not revive those that have died. What good will it do to atone for my mistakes if they cannot be undone?"

Ragna gave a casual shrug. "Far as I'm concerned, better if you try to make up for 'em instead of getting killed so you don't have to own up to them any more."

Toutaku stared hesitantly at Ragna's face, then at Kaku, who returned the look with a worried frown that masked clear unease. She then looked to her friends, who all smiled or nodded at her, and Ragna's generals, who regarded her coolly, then back to him. After a few moments of painful silence, she let out a quiet breath. "Very well."

For a brief moment, Kaku smiled and let out a soft sigh. When Ragna noticed this and looked in her direction, she scowled at him and turned away, grabbing Toutaku's hand and leading her back to the carriage to change clothes.

_Another girl with attitude, huh? _Ragna thought, letting out a sigh of his own as he rubbed his face with his right palm. _I get enough of that shit from Kayuu and Chinkyuu already, damn it._

* * *

By the end of that day, Luoyang was liberated from the rule of Toutaku, despite the fact that the anti-Toutaku alliance ultimately did not find her. Nor did they find any sign of the white-clothed men that had apparently been menacing the city, according to the residents that had not abandoned their homes.

It was at that time that the deaths of the rest of the royal family were confirmed as well. With no members of the emperor's family left in the city, the next-highest nobleman was given the position of Luoyang's administrator.

However, even as the forces of the alliance parted ways later that day with the question of Luoyang finally answered, Ragna knew that something had been set in motion, something slow and inescapable that would inevitably draw him and all of his "allies" into it once more.

He would be proven correct, but not for a time yet.

* * *

_Killing a man is the same as taking responsibility for the death of his dreams. If you refuse to live with that responsibility, then dying is the same as escaping your sin—the sin of taking that life in the first place._

* * *

_**Proverb 7: Dying Is The Same As Escaping Your Sin**_

* * *

_I know this chapter's really late, but I had both a serious case of writer's block and a mountain of work to slog through before I could finally sit down and get this committed. It was particularly hard because it is for all intents and purposes the climax and resolution of the Toutaku arc, though the next intermission (that is, the next chapter) is going to pick up a few plot points to transition into the next storyline._

_Yes, this includes the vague back-story I've been hinting at for Toutaku and her generals by mentioning Bingzhou a bunch of times and never going anywhere with it. It will likely contradict Romance of the Three Kingdoms a little bit and probably isn't even true in the actual Koihime story, but I've been looking forward to it for a while now._

_Anyway, we'll see how things go as far as the next chapter is concerned. Two weeks minimum, and I'll try hard to keep it from being another month without an update._

_Till next time._

_~ZS_


End file.
